The transition into the modern era, which T.S. Eliot called “the immense panorama of futility and anarchy,” brought about a profound crisis of faith, a crisis triggered by the breakdown of religious certainties, rapid industrialization, rising inequality, and the devastation of WWI. In this course, we explore how major modernist poets responded to crises of ideology and outlook. We consider, for example, Whitman’s transcendentalism; Yeats’s engagement with Platonism, politics, and the occult; Eliot’s and Auden’s differing approaches to religion and revolution; and Stevens’ view of poetry as a new religion. What transformative positions did poets take in response to the shock of the new? What role can poetry play in helping us make sense of our own cultures, ideas, and beliefs? We will examine sociohistorical, feminist, philosophical, and psychological dimensions of great poetic works and the contours of the major modernist movements. Authors include Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Williams, Stein, Stevens, McKay, Frost, and Auden (poets who formed several rival camps). We will also consider important precursors to modernism, such as Hardy, Whitman and Dickinson, and more recent contemporary voices. Special attention is paid to language and form. We will discuss, write brief essays about, and even have the option of writing creative pieces inspired by the readings.