History of Early Christian Poetry

3 credits · Graduate School

This course explores the writing and reception of Christian verse from Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Students will study the specific historical, cultural, and geographic contexts for the development of early Christian poetry (roughly from the New Testament era to the 9th century). The course will examine a variety of genres including classical Greek and Roman styles (e.g. epic poetry, elegiac couplets, epigrams, and Virgilian imitations) and emerging early Christian forms (e.g. translations of Biblical psalms and verse, hymns, poetic sermons and Biblical interpretations, liturgical texts, and verses in praise of Christians saints). All readings will be done in English translations of texts from variety of the linguistic traditions including Syriac, Greek, Latin, Armenian, and Old English. Readings will include the work of Ephrem the Syrian, Proba, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil of Caesarea, Prudentius, Romanos, Radegund, Kassia and anonymous texts including the Dream of the Rood. Students will also examine the impact of early Christian poetry on later Christian imagination including its influence on later authors and musicians such as in the work of J.M. Neale, Christina Rossetti, and John Tavener. Lastly, students will have the opportunity to add their own voices to the long legacy of Early Christian verse through interpretation, composition, or other engagement with the tradition. [3] Mr. Michelson