From Hesiod and Virgil to Robert Frost and W. S. Merwin, by way of the Japanese haiku masters and the Romantics, poets eastern and western have engaged with and responded to the natural world. Through discussions of selected readings classical to contemporary, this seminar will explore poetry that adopts nature for lyric expression, both celebrating its abundance and, tuned to the perils of an environmentally compromised future, lamenting its abuse.

Bhisham Bherwani is the author of three poetry books. His essays have appeared in the American Poetry Review, the American Reader, Pleiades, Rain Taxi, the Yale Review, and other places. He was educated at Cornell University and New York University.

This seminar takes place over three Tuesdays:
September 24
October 15
October 29

all at 5:00 PM in the Whitridge Room.