Students explore letter poems and experiment with writing letters as poems, using the placement of line breaks to enhance rhythm, sound, meaning, and appearance.

Long perceived as a recluse who wrote purely in isolation, Emily Dickinson in reality maintained many dynamic correspondences throughout her lifetime and specifically sought out dialogues on her poetry. These correspondences"”both professional and private"”reveal a poet keenly aware of the interdependent relationship between poet and reader.

Leyendas y arquetipos del Romanticismo español is an introduction to nineteenth-century Spanish literature with a thematic focus on legends and archetypes. It presents Romanticism in the context of nineteenth-century literary and social movements. It is designed as a first anthology for intermediate Spanish students at American universities. Although brief, it includes poetry, drama in verse and short story. The works have been selected for their literary interest and the social importance of their themes. They are all by canonical authors.
The Prologue and introductions to the authors and texts often utilize circumlocution to facilitate comprehension, and include concrete examples of the concepts presented. The author biographies are brief and should not be used as study materials, but rather as starting points for students’ own exploration. Many students prefer following their own interests when researching author biographies, and the internet makes accessible a plethora of bibliographic resources, such as the Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, the Centro Virtual Cervantes of the Cervantes Institute, or the Biblioteca Digital Hispánica of the Spanish National Library. Student participation in the selection of topics and sources emphasizes the investigative process and leads to richer class discussions.

The interactive explores the ways that poets choose line breaks in their writing. After viewing the demonstration, students are invited to experiment with line breaks themselves.

Access historic documents related to literature and poetry including selected Walt Whitman notebooks, digitized rare books, and presentations on a variety of literary figures ranging from Anne Bradstreet and Phillis Wheatley to Edgar Allan Poe and Ernest Hemingway.

Students identify similes in poetry and gain experience in using similes as a poetic device in their own work.

Referring to a Roman gravestone for inspiration, students use a foam carving medium and carving tools to create a bas-relief (low-relief) gravestone for a beloved pet. Students then write an epitaph for the pet using a standard form of poetry that is appropriate for the setting, such as an elegy, ode, or couplet.

Emmy award-winning poet, Lucille Clifton, introduces and reads her poem, 'Turning,' about trying to be your own person and taking responsibility for your life.

California Poet Laureate Al Young has created a profound and enduring body of work that represents our time. Young's numerous publications in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and for the stage and screen explore the American, human condition through the lens of the individual voice. Tune in as he reads a selection of his Poems before a live audience at UC Berkeley. (28 minutes)

Revolutionary poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka is recognized as the founder of the Black Arts Movement, a literary period that began in Harlem in the 1960s and forever changed the look, sound, and feel of American poetry. 26 minutes)

Arthur Sze is an internationally known writer and celebrated translator. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sze teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he resides. (29 minutes)

Barbara Guest has published over ten volumes of poetry. One of the original members of the New York School of Poets, Guest reinvents herself with every book. Her recent titles include Miniatures and Other Poems, Rocks on a Platter, and Selected Poems. Charles Bernstein writes that Guest's works "have become an integral part of the fabric of contemporary American poetry." A graduate of UC Berkeley, Guest has been honored with the Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement by the Poetry Society of America. She resides in Berkeley. (28 minutes)

Poet Brenda Hillman writes of the realms where the division between the sensual and spiritual dissolve. In her passionate reading, Hillman uses language to explore the edges of human consciousness. (28 minutes)

Camille Dungy is the author of two poetry collections and teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University. (27 minutes)

Clayton Eshleman, American poet, translator, and editor, reads from his recently released translation "Solar Throat Slashed," by AimŽ CŽsaire, co-translated with A. James Arnold. CŽsaire, a strong anticolonialist, was born in the Caribbean and wrote his Poems and plays in French. (57 minutes)

Charismatic poet Cornelius Eady uses deft paradoxes to meet the world's absurdities head-on. In a powerful reading of his own work, Eady recites like a jazz singer croons, emphasizing his poetry's hard-hitting content. (28 minutes)

Dan Bellm has published three books of poetry, including Practice, winner of a 2009 California Book Award and named one of the Top Ten Poetry Books of 2008 by the Virginia Quarterly Review. His first collection, One Hand on the Wheel, launched the California Poetry Series and his second, Buried Treasure, won the Poetry Society of AmericaŐs Alice Fay DiCastagnola Award. (29 minutes)

David St. John was widely praised and was a National Book Award finalist for Study for the World's Body. Recent books are The Red Leaves of Night from HarperPerennial and Prism from Arctos Press, and his newest, The Face , a book-length Poems. His image-rich work muses on both ecstasy and loss. (51 minutes)

World-renowned poet Diane di Prima, one of the preeminent writers to emerge from the Beat generation, wrote in Manhattan for many years before relocating to San Francisco, where she has been for nearly four decades. Her 43 books of poetry and prose have been translated into over twenty languages. (29 minutes)

Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail immigrated to the United States in 1996 after increasing harassment over her poetry, which confronts war and exile with subversive depictions of suffering. In 2001 she was awarded the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. (28 minutes)