This course surveys the history of love poetry along with attempts by philosophers, poets, and scholars to theorize the space of eros. Reading as writers and thinkers, we will consider the full emotional range of love poetry - from attraction and infatuation to questioning, affection, fulfillment, and loss. We will read from canonical authors, including Sappho and Shakespeare, along with contemporary writers who affirm and renew these ancient, global traditions. Along the way, we will consider such perennial questions as: to what extent does love poetry represent individual experience versus expressing the values and conventions of a community? How have writers, especially queer poets, both satisfied and resisted those traditions and conventions? What does it mean to speak toward a beloved? Why does love poetry, as a written language, exist at all?
3 units · Letter (ABCD/NP) · GER: WAY-A-II
This course surveys the history of love poetry along with attempts by philosophers, poets, and scholars to theorize the space of eros. Reading as writers and thinkers, we will consider the full emotional range of love poetry - from attraction and infatuation to questioning, affection, fulfillment, and loss. We will read from canonical authors, including Sappho and Shakespeare, along with contemporary writers who affirm and renew these ancient, global traditions. Along the way, we will consider such perennial questions as: to what extent does love poetry represent individual experience versus expressing the values and conventions of a community? How have writers, especially queer poets, both satisfied and resisted those traditions and conventions? What does it mean to speak toward a beloved? Why does love poetry, as a written language, exist at all?
Offered in Autumn 2026 at Stanford University.