The Deed of Word

The Deed of Word

Describing his course to first-years, Angelo Mercado says:

Human language: what is it? And its parts?

Its rules, the things that we acquire unthinking?

Now, how do poets fashion speech into art?

Students in this course will be exploring

linguistic aspects of poetry, like rhyme,

rhythm, and structures of varying complexity.

We’ll look at other traditions at the same time,

but English will be our focus primarily.

On up to sentence from syllable and sound,

students shall invent for language a theory

and for linguistic poetics, and look around

at how other scholars answer the query.