Completion of French 102 or its equivalent required for enrollment. This class is taught entirely in French.

In this course we will read poems, write poems, recite poems, translate them, memorize them, and even (studiously, try to) forget them. We will read across periods, from the Troubadour verse of Daniel Arnaut and the lais of Marie de France to the ballads of François Villon and the “Art(s) poétique(s)” of Verlaine and Boileau; we’ll read major poetic landmarks (Stéphane Mallarmé’s “Un coup de dés”) as well as minor masterpieces (Louisa Siefert’s “Marguerite”). As we read, we will master the technical constraints of French verse by composing pastiches and declaiming poems aloud; interspersed with our poems will be a few theoretical essays on the philosophical stakes of thinking in verse.

No background in poetry is required; the course is conducted in French.