Poetry Books that Harvard Literature Students Read in 1983

welcome to close reading poetry I'm Adam Walker a PhD student at Harvard University and today I would like to share with you a list of some of the greatest works of poetry that have been recommended by Harvard professors in the 1980s earlier this year as I was cleaning out my graduate student office uh in Harvard Square I found a discarded box of books that had been left behind by previous tenants and in the books I found a list of recommended reading that was compiled by Harvard English professors in 19 1983 this is a bibliography of recommended texts for English major concentrators at the Harvard College these are the leading works of literature that Harvard professors believed every literature student should read this particular Edition was compiled by a committee of professors Larry Benson Marjorie Garber Walter Jackson bate uh Alan heimert Walker Kaiser Elizabeth McKenzie and David Perkins this list contains hundreds of works of literature not just primary sources but critical works and companions that went along with these books that were aimed to help students understand the texts better these Works include great essays some of the greatest novels the greatest poems and collections of poems ever written and the greatest plays and much more including an appendix of critical works for historical study it's an amazing resource and in this video I'd like to share some of the primary recommendations for English poetry I'll also give some updates to the secondary reading um of great books and works that I think you should know about that's been published since this was published in the coming weeks I'll be sharing a video about an opportunity to study this list with me in 2024 uh through reading groups on my patreon account and in the coming days I'll release a syllabus of the major texts the ones that uh I think are most important and then I think we can get through in a year for those of you who want to do this on your own I'll provide you the list in this video of where the best works of poetry to study if you're a literature student or an afficianado of any kind and if you read these books you will have read more than what's required of many English Majors today including Harvard's so let's consider this list it's divided into ...