HEYTHROP COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
MOD 1 - Module Description LEVEL5 AND LEVEL 6 MODULES
Sections marked with * cannot be changed without approval from the Learning and Teaching Committee
Code* CS301
Credit Value* 15
Academic Level* 5&6
Title * Poetry and Human Thought
Co-ordinator Dr Dominic McLoughlin
Module Staff Dr Dominic McLoughlin
Assessment
External Examiner Mr M Inwood
Dr Peter Gallagher
Convenor
Term(s)
Lent
Years Available Every year
Available
BA Philosophy
BA Theology
Programmes*
As Core
As Option
BA Philosophy, Religion
and Ethics
Level 4 BA Philosophy
PreCo-requisites*
Level 4 BA Theology
requisites*
Level 4 BA PRE
Prohibited
Combination*
 To introduce students to reading poetry as a means of reflecting upon concepts and
themes in philosophy and theology
Aims*
 To introduce students to the connections between poetry and philosophy and theology
 To increase students’ appreciation of different ways of reading
 To augment close reading of philosophical and theological texts through close reading of
poetry
Learning
Outcomes*
LEVEL 5
LEVEL 6
Knowledge and Understanding
A successful student will be able to:
 Identify how the poems under
discussion relate to ideas in philosophy
and theology
 Recognise similarities and differences
between ways of reading in poetry and
in students’ core disciplines
Knowledge and Understanding
A successful student will be able to:
 Show a critical appreciation and
comprehension of how the poems
under discussion relate to ideas in
philosophy and theology
 Evaluate similarities and differences
between ways of reading in poetry
and in students’ core disciplines
Intellectual and Cognitive Skills
Intellectual and Cognitive Skills
A successful student will be able to:
A successful student will be able to:
 Reflect on their personal taste and
interests in poetry
 Reflect on and give reasons for their
personal taste and interests in poetry
 Outline and evaluate the debates on
the value of poetry as a means for
 Engage with debates on the value of
reflecting on concepts in philosophy
poetry as a means for reflecting on
and theology
concepts in philosophy and theology
 Identify, analyse and make use of ideas
 Identify and critically evaluate ideas
from literary studies as they apply to an
from literary studies as they apply to
understanding of themes in students’
an understanding of themes in
core disciplines
students’ core disciplines
Practical and Transferable Skills
Skills map:
PA
Communication Skills
TPA
Team work
TPA
Problem solving
TPA
Personal organisation
PA
IT skills
TPA
Use of data
Key: T = taught, P = practised, A = assessed
Any additional skills:
 Ability to listen to others and to appreciate and evaluate their different perspectives
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
Ability to conduct a close reading of poems, and give reasons for their individual
responses
In this module a range of poets are chosen to allow for the comparison between poetry and
philosophy and theology, examining their different approaches to language and the description of
human experience. Close reading of poems and secondary texts provides a framework for
thinking about how poets have engaged with themes in philosophy of mind, aesthetics,
epistemology and metaphysics.
Indicative
module
content
Topics studied may include:
 GM Hopkins—philosophy of mind: consciousness, thought in action
 Wallace Stevens—aesthetics: imagination and reality in the age of Modernism
 Elizabeth Bishop—epistemology: language and representation
 Seamus Heaney—metaphysics: from ‘feeling into words’ to‘ crediting marvels’
Examples of questions arising: how does poetic form help to embody and reinforce meaning?
Can poetry help us to investigate philosophical and theological problems? Is poetry a way of
‘thinking with your feelings’ (Bishop)? In what way does poetry ‘…fortify your inner life, your
inwardness’ (Heaney)?
Relationship
of module
content to
staff
research
Indicative
learning and
teaching
activities
Selected
Bibliography:
Essential
texts
The content of the module reflects the ongoing research interests of the module teacher(s).
Please add in any specific information here
The module teacher’s research is in the practice of creative writing (poetry), and reading as a
writer particularly in relation to Elizabeth Bishop.
Rationale for and description of activities
Two hour classes will be offered to include a lecture, followed by a seminar/ workshop. Students
will have a chance to engage with studied material in the session, and to work collaboratively to
gain an understanding of different ways of reading in poetry and philosophy and theology.
Students will be encouraged to keep a reading journal to capture their thoughts upon poets
encountered in the syllabus. The coursework task will allow students to articulate their ideas
about individual poems, and to relate them to broad areas in human thought such as problems in
aesthetics, epistemology and metaphysics. The tutorials and end of year essays will allow
students to organize their considered ideas, and to present them formally.
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Selected
other
recommende
d texts
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Bishop, Elizabeth, Poems (London: Chatto & Windus, 2011)
Heaney, Seamus, Seeing Things (London: Faber, 1991)
Hopkins, Gerard Manley, Poems and Prose (London: Penguin Classics, 1985)
Stevens, Wallace Selected Poems(London: Faber, 2010)
Bishop, Elizabeth, Poems, Prose and Letters (NY: Library of America, 2008)
A Cleghorn and J Ellis (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Bishop
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014)
Critchley, Simon, Things Merely Are: Philosophy in the Poetry of Wallace Stevens
(London: Routledge, 2005)
Doty, Mark, The Art of Description: world into word (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2010)
Eagleton, Terry, How to Read a Poem (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
Grunbien, Durs, The Bars of Atlantis: Selected Essays (NY: FSG, 2010)
Heaney, Seamus, The Redress of Poetry(London: Faber, 1995)
Hirshfield, Jane, Nine Gates: entering the mind of poetry (NY: Harper Collins, 1997)
Hobsbaum, Philip, Metre, Rhythm and Verse Form (Routledge, 1995)
A Mark and D Rees Jones (eds) Contemporary Women’s Poetry—
Reading/Writing/Practice (Macmillan, 2000)
McLane, Maureen, My Poets (NY: FSG, 2012)
John N Serio (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Wallace Stevens (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2007
Smith, Zadie, Changing My Mind (Hamish Hamilton, 2009)
Vendler, Helen The Breaking of Style: Hopkins, Heaney, Graham (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1995)
Walker, Cheryl, God and Elizabeth Bishop: meditations on religion and poetry (NY:
Palgrave, 2005)
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Wood, Michael, Literature and the Taste of Knowledge (Cambridge, Cambridge
University Press, 2005)
Assessment*
LEVEL 5
LEVEL 6
Coursework Assessments (CA1, CA2, CA3)
Task:
Type
CA1:
Rationale:
Magnitude
Essay
1,500
Type
Magnitude
Essay
To develop and assess students’ knowledge and
understanding of poems chosen for their relevance
to philosophical and theological themes. Also, the
task requires students to be able to identify and
reflect on personal preferences in poetry; active
comparison of poems is a requirement.
Weight
within
the
module
2,000
To develop and assess students’ knowledge and
critical understanding of poems chosen for their
relevance to philosophical and theological themes.
Also the task requires students to be able to identify,
reflect on and evaluate personal preferences in
poetry; active comparison of poems is a
requirement.
30%
End of Year Assessment (EOY)
Task:
EOY:
Rationale:
Type
Essay
Magnitude
3,500
To test the understanding of the value of poetry as a
means of reflecting on philosophical and theological
themes. The essay also tests students’ ability to
discuss ideas from different disciplines in an
organized and coherent way. Example title: ‘If
poetry and the arts can do anything, they can fortify
your inner life, your inwardness’. Discuss in relation
to two poems by Seamus Heaney.
Type
Essay
Magnitude
4,000
70%
To test understanding and critical appreciation of
contemporary debates on the value of poetry as a
means of reflecting on philosophical and theological
themes. The essay also tests students’ ability to
discuss ideas from different disciplines in an
organized and coherent way.
Example title: ‘It is all description, no philosophy’ .
Discuss and evaluate this statement in relation to
two poems by Elizabeth Bishop.
To pass the module, students must achieve an overall module mark at least equal to
the pass mark, avoid comprehensive failure as defined in the published assessment
criteria for each assessment task, and pass the end of module element.
Feedback to
students on
assessed
coursework
In module
student
evaluation
opportunities
Date of
approval of
module
description
development
or
modification
Coursework feedback normally includes a mark, written comments and an essay tutorial. Marks
and feedback will normally be provided through the virtual learning environment. All work
submitted by the due date will be treated in accord with the College’s policy on written feedback
to ensure that it is both timely and constructive.
Informally in tutorials and in formal module evaluations.
The teachers welcome comments, criticisms and questions.
Approved 20 January 2014
Updated by Module Coordinator – 10th September 2015
Reviewed by SSC – 22nd March 2016
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