First Poets of the Modern City: Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue, Eliot
opportunities and the emotional and spiritual damage of life in the modern city. We will look in particular how Baudelaire’s poems and Laforgue’s translations of Whitman into French influenced Eliot’s early poetry, culminating in The Waste Land (1922).
- Course Code: HLT329
- Dates: 28/01/25 - 04/03/25
- Time: 10:30 - 12:30
- Taught: Tue, Daytime
- Duration: 6 sessions (over 6 weeks)
- Location: Keeley Street
- Tutor: Laurie Smith
Course Code: HLT329
Duration: 6 sessions (over 6 weeks)
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
In this in-person course we look at how Baudelaire wrote about the experience of living in a city rapidly changing into a modern metropolis – how this led him to describe a wider range of experience with greater frankness than any previous poet. This includes social commentary, sexual adventure, high art (he was a successful critic), drug taking and, above all, the emotional damage done to the spirit by daily life amid millions of fellow humans. We will look at how he uses images from urban life to express his feelings through “correspondences” and how he created the first confessional verse, also his development of prose poetry.
We then look at how Whitman created a wholly new kind of poetry, celebrating the democratic freedoms and opportunities for ordinary working people, chiefly in New York City and, during the Civil War, in Washington, DC.
What will we cover?
We then consider how Jules Laforgue’s bitter tightly-rhymed poetry was transformed by his translating Whitman into French and how his final poems (before his death at age 27), irregular and loosely rhymed, were the model for Eliot’s early poems. We will trace how Laforgue’s earlier and later poetry affected Eliot, also the direct influence of Baudelaire on Eliot including his rendering of Baudelaire’s ‘correspondence’ as ‘objective correlative’. In the light of these influences we will read Eliot’s great early poems – Preludes, Prufrock, Rhapsody on a Windy Night and The Waste Land – as lived responses to the modern city.
Please note: We will read poems in French in the original to give a sense of how they sound, as well as in the most accurate verse translations available, but we will discuss the English versions.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
• Understand how Baudelaire, Whitman, Laforgue and Eliot responded to the modern city.
• Understand how the first three were vital influences on Eliot’s early poetry.
• Enjoy reading and discussing some great poems.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
You should be interested in how these four poets responded to life in the modern city and how the first three influenced Eliot’s early poetry. No particular knowledge or skills are needed.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
The sessions are run in a seminar style with all students invited to take part in discussions led by the tutor. You will receive the materials the previous week so you can read them and be ready to discuss them.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
No. All the materials will be provided by the tutor.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The tutor will also be teaching HLT45 An Introduction to Poetry: Robert Lowell and Stevie Smith, HLT52 'You must change your life': why Rilke matters, HLT288 Keats and Eternity and HLT39 Poetry from the Edge.
For other poetry courses please look on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk under History, Culture and Writing/Literature/Poetry.
Laurie Smith has taught poetry writing and literature courses at the City Lit for some years, focussing on modernism and writers' radicalism. He researches and lectures at King's College London, helped to found Magma poetry magazine which he sometimes edits and has been a Trustee of the Poetry Society.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.