Focuses on the basic poetic elements: speaker, theme, diction, imagery, figures of speech, tone, patterns of sound and rhythm, meter, rhyme and various poetic forms. Examines poems by a variety of poets-traditional and contemporary, ethnic and mainstream, American and international. Teaches students to analyze and scan poems. Fulfills general education requirement in literature and thinking critically and analytically, objectives 1 and 2. [3 credits]