The early part of the 20th century is often compared to the Renaissance as a time of massive literary innovation and production. This class, a companion to Major Works of Modern Fiction, will focus on a few of the major poets who transformed poetry and had, and continue to have a powerful influence on writing in our time. Specifically we shall make ourselves familiar with the writings of W.B. Yeats. Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, William Carlos Williams and Wallace Stevens. Part of our task will be to put their achievements in historical context (Romantic, Victorian, Edwardian, Post-Modern). Our central goal, though, will be to develop our abilities to read, understand and comment on some of the best, and often most complex, challenging and interesting, poetry of our times.