Modern American Poetry (Coursera)

Modern American Poetry (Coursera)

Twelve experienced faculty members from across the United States present their analyses of ground-breaking modern American poets in richly illustrated video lectures. The course highlights both major poets—from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson through T.S. Eliot, H.D., Amy Lowell, Hart Crane, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, and many others—and influential movements. The course mixes historical overview with close readings of individual poets and poems.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

Most courses give only one instructor’s point of view. This one matches the diversity of US poetry with lectures by a score of talented faculty. They bring their special perspective to the material while also presenting a coherent view of more than fifty years of US poetry. Throughout the course the lectures are illustrated with vivid images of the events, people, and places mentioned in the poems themselves. Readings by both the poets themselves and experienced faculty highlight the texts. On screen displays of text and quotations make it easy to follow the material. This is a course that takes advantage of the medium to bring you sights and sounds that would be difficult to incorporate in classroom lectures.

Syllabus

WEEK 1: Orientation - Reassessing Modernism's Origins
WEEK 2: The Difference Women Made
WEEK 3: Poetry's Social Voice
WEEK 4: Modernism's Legacies

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Art & Ideas: Teaching with Themes (Coursera) Coursera
The Museum of Modern Art

Art & Ideas: Teaching with Themes (Coursera)

This course is designed to help build critical skills that support theme-based teaching practices and build confidence in incorporating modern and contemporary art into interdisciplinary lesson plans. By addressing themes and questions that arise in relation to modern and contemporary art, the course will help you to think creatively about links to your curriculum and the ways that you can tap into students’ knowledge and life experience.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Game Design (Coursera) Coursera
California Institute of the Arts

Introduction to Game Design (Coursera)

Welcome! This course is an introduction to the primary concepts of gaming, and an exploration of how these basic concepts affect the way gamers interact with our games. In this course you will understand what defines a “game” and the mechanics and rules behind different types of games. Through four linked assignments you'll learn ways to create and describe a game concept, and specifically what makes a compelling game. This course focuses on the conceptual underpinnings of games, and all assignments can be completed with a pencil and paper – no previous programming knowledge is required.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
Photography Techniques: Light, Content, and Sharing (Coursera) Coursera
Michigan State University

Photography Techniques: Light, Content, and Sharing (Coursera)

Welcome to Course FOUR! In Modules 1-4 you will cover the final elements of the Specialization necessary to round out this introduction to the fundamentals of Photography, and prepare you for creating your own exciting project in the Capstone! You have come a long way since the beginning of this journey from Smartphone Basics to DSLR and Beyond. Just think of all the information you have absorbed and put to use in your assignments and quizzes, and the confidence you have gained that you CAN control the camera to make pictures you are proud to share.

Sep 21st 2026
4 Weeks
Videojuegos: ¿de qué hablamos? (Coursera) Coursera
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Videojuegos: ¿de qué hablamos? (Coursera)

Probablemente, todos hemos jugado a algún videojuego, pero ¿qué hay detrás de él? Podemos decir que - con independencia del videojuego - hay un árduo trabajo multidisciplinar que incluye desde aspectos de diseño hasta la programación como tal del videojuego. Este curso pretende ser un curso introductorio que muestre qué aspectos hay que considerar en el videojuego, y que permita con posterioridad abordar individualmente los temas que se consideran nucleares: diseño, arte, motor del videojuego y 'game play'.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Teaching the Violin and Viola: Creating a Healthy Foundation (Coursera) Coursera
Northwestern University

Teaching the Violin and Viola: Creating a Healthy Foundation (Coursera)

Join us as we explore the fundamental principles and early stages of teaching violin and viola through a series of engaging video lectures and lesson demonstrations, including: 1) Master classes with some of the world’s top string pedagogues, 2) Individual lesson demos of teaching violin/viola set up, left and right hand technique and pieces from the early violin/viola repertoire, 3) Group lesson demos of teaching music theory, ear training and fun activities that encourage good playing habits, and 4) A “field trip” to the violin shop, where we will outfit a new beginning student with a proper instrument and bow.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Indigenous Canada (Coursera) Coursera
University of Alberta

Indigenous Canada (Coursera)

Indigenous Canada is a 12-lesson Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that explores Indigenous histories and contemporary issues in Canada. From an Indigenous perspective, this course explores key issues facing Indigenous peoples today from a historical and critical perspective highlighting national and local Indigenous-settler relations.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera) Coursera
The Museum of Modern Art

In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting (Coursera)

Want to know how some of the 20th century’s most celebrated artists made abstract paintings? This course offers an in-depth, hands-on look at the materials, techniques, and thinking of seven New York School artists, including Willem de Kooning, Yayoi Kusama, Agnes Martin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. Through studio demonstrations and gallery walkthroughs, you’ll form a deeper understanding of what a studio practice means and how ideas develop from close looking, and you’ll gain a sensitivity to the physical qualities of paint.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Words Spun Out of Images: Visual and Literary Culture in Nineteenth Century Japan (Coursera) Coursera
The University of Tokyo

Words Spun Out of Images: Visual and Literary Culture in Nineteenth Century Japan (Coursera)

In their ambition to capture “real life,” Japanese painters, poets, novelists and photographers of the nineteenth century collaborated in ways seldom explored by their European contemporaries. This course offers learners the chance to encounter and appreciate behavior, moral standards and some of the material conditions surrounding Japanese artists in the nineteenth century, in order to renew our assumptions about what artistic “realism” is and what it meant.

Oct 5th 2026
4 Weeks
Modern Art & Ideas (Coursera) Coursera
The Museum of Modern Art

Modern Art & Ideas (Coursera)

Welcome to Modern Art & Ideas! This course is designed for anyone interested in learning more about modern and contemporary art. Over the next five weeks, you will look at art through a variety of themes: Places & Spaces, Art & Identity, Transforming Everyday Objects, and Art & Society. Each week kicks off with a video that connects works of art from The Museum of Modern Art’s collection to the theme. You will hear audio interviews with artists, designers, and curators and learn more about selected works in the additional readings and resources.

Sep 21st 2026
5-12 Weeks
Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop (Coursera) Coursera
California Institute of the Arts

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop (Coursera)

Why just write poems when you can write better ones? This course is built on the notion that the most exciting writing begins after the first draft. It is specifically for folks who believe that writing poems just to express oneself is like using the Internet just for email. After all, poetry can change the way you and your readers think of the world and its inhabitants; it can break new ground for language; turn a blank sheet of paper into a teeming concert of voices and music.

Sep 28th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Art and the Digital Transformation (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

Art and the Digital Transformation (Coursera)

More than two decades into the new millennium, it is difficult to envision a future in which digital technologies do not play a significant role. Digital technologies frequently make a lot of promises. However, in recent years, we have seen an increasing number of artists address fundamental issues of the Digital Transformation, such as surveillance, lack of representation, and digital illiteracy. Artists have demonstrated that, while digital technologies have the potential to support processes leading to greater equality, they are frequently viewed as perpetuating and even exacerbating inequalities.

Oct 5th 2026
5-12 Weeks