Dr. Uncle Jerry University: Poetry 101

We’re doing something a bit different today! Some conversations have popped up in various comment sections about why Uncle Jerry prefers specific types of poetry, and which lenses we use to dissect those poems, whether we’re talking about Charles Dickens, Emily Dickenson, or Taylor Swift. So Uncle Jerry put together a lecture explaining how and why he views certain poetic styles the way he does, and explains the different criticism styles and theories we use to understand a poem’s meaning and impact. Hope you enjoy! Please leave any questions in the comments that he can answer either here or in a later episode.  Works Cited: Marxist Literary Criticism Post-Colonial Criticism Reader-response theory Key Theories of Wolfgang Iser Is There a Text in This Class? – Stanley Fish – Aff Link Psychological Criticism Feminist Theory New Criticism Felicia Dorothea Hemans On the Intentional Fallacy Hyperion – John Keats Affective Fallacy Queer Theory Deconstruction Semiotics Critical Race Theory New Historicism Stephen Greenblatt and New Historicism Sketches by Boz – Charles Dickens – Aff Link Sonnets Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare – Aff Link Limerick Haiku Ballad Meter (or Common Measure) Villanelle Concrete Poetry Life Studies – Robert Lowell – Aff Link  The Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath – Aff Link My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke The Real Slim Shady – Eminem Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture Paperback – Dana Gioia – Aff Link A Bit Much – Lyndsay Rush – Aff Link Lyndsay Rush – Instagram Amanda Gorman The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram