Courses – Fall 2025 / Literature / ORAL INTERPRETATION OF POETRY

Coordinators: Joyce Hinote, Peter Dichter

The Origins of Poetry: Poetry is a fundamental form of expression of human emotions. It often arises from, channels, and distills our most fundamental emotions — love, grief, wonder, longing, rage, joy. Poetry can feel like an emotional instinct, a primal response to the complexity of life.

So, it is not unlikely that the origins of poetry trace back to the earliest forms of human expression, long before the invention of writing, beginning as a spoken art form, emerging from rituals, chants, and oral storytelling. So, we turn to the ancients and the beautiful poetry of the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese. We can still thrill to the epic poems of Gilgamesh, the Mahabharata, the Edda as our ancestors did. Join us and revive the primal emotions of human antiquity.

B WEEK / THURSDAY / 10:30 AM – NOON / IN-PERSON / ROOM 27

Other Classes:

• MORAL TALES FOR OUR TIMES
• THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV
• TIMELESS WRITINGS: THE ILIAD
• WONDERFUL BOOKS OUT LOUD: TWAIN'S SHORT STORIES
• CONTEMPORARY POETRY
• CONTEMPORARY SHORT STORIES

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