Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

I’ve been writing about the prospect of the Next Renaissance, a revival of the arts and literature that has the potential to be the great counter-cultural movement of our times.

If this renaissance happens, it will challenge the decline of literacy and the rise of Big-Tech governments and their opiates of entertainment.

But if another renaissance is going to happen, we need to seriously consider the hard work that it will require of us all. It will not require more activity, more purchasing, or more “content creation.” The Next Renaissance will demand a complete spiritual reorientation of the self to the world of people and of things (nature), to inherited traditions of literature and culture, and to the Divine.

I’ve spoken a lot about the mission of the academy and how, in many respects, it has failed. But also misaligned is the shared mission of our society.


While my past essays have critiqued the academy, my next series of essays will highlight the opportunities that this moment offers to all of us. My literature courses, lectures, and essays in 2026 will center the literature of cultural revivals. These essays adopt the same conviction held by the poets and philosophers of past revivals—that the human spirit and imagination constitute a vinculum mundi, the “link” between worlds; that beauty and art guide our intellects toward goodness and wholeness; that language, especially symbolic and poetic language (as W.B. Yeats knew) harbors a power to transform our consciousness and the world.

More on my 2026 courses will come soon! In the meantime, you can read the latest from my Substack below.

adamgagewalker.substack.com/p/spirit-in-the-renais…

5 days ago | [YT] | 466

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

What kinds of literature topics or questions would you like to see addressed on this channel? Drop your questions below, and I'll address some of them in upcoming videos!

1 week ago | [YT] | 123

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

The Fellowship of the Ring: Books I & II

The summer cycle begins! Join us for a study of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring as a work of fantasy literature. We’ll explore how Tolkien’s narrative is shaped by medieval epic traditions, folklore, allegory, symbolic landscapes, Romantic poetics, and the visionary mode.

Through lectures and seminar discussions, we’ll examine Tolkien’s style, narrative structure, and mythic imagination in detail.

Book I
Lecture: Monday, June 2, 6pm ET
Discussion: Wednesday, June 4, 6pm ET

Book II
Lecture: Monday, June 9, 6pm ET
Discussion: Wednesday, June 11, 6pm ET

Hosted on Versed: versedcommunity.mn.co/

6 months ago | [YT] | 142

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

I'm excited to announce that applications to this free literature course are now open!

Described by T.S. Eliot as “a work of genius”, David Jones’ In Parenthesis, a book-length modernist epic poem on World War I, remains understudied to this day. This mini-course will present an opportunity to close-read the entirety of the poem, situating it within the landscapes of modernism and World War I literature. A remarkable poetic work which commemorates the world of the ordinary WWI soldier through an experimental mix of prose and poetry and a tapestry of allusions to Welsh, Arthurian and Christian traditions, In Parenthesis invites close reading. Class sessions may begin with a short lecture or jump right into discussion, which we will divide into two forty minute sections.

Class Structure (Length): 5 meetings on Tuesday evenings (4:30-6pm EST), roughly divided into two 40 minute sections with a ten-minute break in the middle.

Meeting Times: 5/20-6/17; Tues 4:30-6 ET

To learn more and apply, click here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScPZ74Ec3nRDmYqFm…

6 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 167

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

The Waste Land in Slow Motion
with Adam Walker | Versed~ Community | Begins next week!

This five-week reading group invites you to take your time with one of the most important poems of the 20th century. Each week, we’ll read and re-read a section of the poem, share annotations in a live collaborative document, and gather for guided discussion. Inspired by Reuben Brower’s method of “reading in slow motion,” this course encourages deep attention to Eliot’s language, images, rhythms, and references.

Whether you’re new to Modernism or returning with fresh eyes, you’ll emerge with a clearer understanding of the poem as a work of art. By the end, we’ll have built a shared, annotated version of the poem -- part study guide, part work of art!

Choose a cohort and join us:
🕛 Mondays at 12pm ET (starting April 21)
🌆 Tuesdays at 6pm ET (starting April 22)



When you join Versed~ for $15/month, you'll have instant access to a community of fellow readers, writers, and poets who love literature. You'll also have access to the lectures for my other two courses, "The Poetics of Enchantment" and "The Bible and English Poetry."



We hope to see you there!

7 months ago | [YT] | 160

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

My book review of Mark McIntosh's The Divine Ideas Tradition (2021) engages with some of the questions we're exploring in my Patreon course "The Poetics of Enchantment." Here both a review and a starting place for exploring Plato's afterlives in literature and theology.

open.substack.com/pub/adamgagewalker/p/the-divine-…

9 months ago | [YT] | 93

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

I started a free Substack as a written companion to my educational work on Patreon and here on YouTube. In my first post, I offer some further thoughts behind the idea of enchantment that guided the design of my course "The Poetics of Enchantment" (starting next week)!


"Enchantment" as


1. a state of consciousness in response to beauty (similar to Stephen Dedalus’s sense of the word);


2. the tremendous feeling of awe, wonder, inspiration (the word tremendous carries much freight here, including its Latin root, tremere, “to tremble”; Rudolf von Otto’s concept of mysterium tremendum et fascinans, the “tremendous and fascinating mystery”; along with Elizabeth Bishop’s brilliantly considered use of the word in “The Fish”);


3. an awareness and a sense of a deeper spiritual reality within Nature (this involves what Shelley in his A Defense of Poetry called the “diviner manner” of poetry: “It awakens and enlarges the mind itself by rendering it the receptacle of a thousand unapprehended combinations of thought. Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar”);


4. an encounter with beauty that leads to greater love for the earth, the self, and others (from the Wordsworthian belief that the love of Nature leads to the love of humankind; see Book VIII of the 1850 Prelude).

Read more on the post below: open.substack.com/pub/adamgagewalker/p/the-poetics…

9 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 160

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

My evening course on American literature is underway! Feel free to sign up and drop by any time between now and November! To join the course and the community, sign up for $10/month at Patreon.com/CloseReadingPoetry.

Week 1: Introduction to American Transcendentalism and Renaissance

Monday September 2, 6pm EST

Readings: Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Nature” (1836); Henry David Thoreau, “Walking” (1862)


Week 2: Emerson’s Essays and Poetry

Monday September 9, 6pm EST

Readings of essays: “The Divinity School Address” (1838) and “Self-Reliance” (1841)

Readings of poems: “Uriel,” “Brahma,” “Concord Hymn,” “Days,” “The Sphinx,” and “The Snow-Storm”



Week 3: Thoreau’s Walden pt. I

Monday September 16, 6pm EST

Readings: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Chapter II “Where I Lived, and What I lived for,” III: “Reading,” IV “Sounds, V “Solitude”


Week 4: Thoreau’s Walden pt. II

Monday September 23, 6pm EST

Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Chapters VI “Visitors,” VIII “The Bean-field,” XI “Higher Laws,” “XV “Winter Animals”


Week 5:Thoreau’s Walden pt. III

Monday September 30, 6pm EST

Readings: Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Chapters XVII “Spring” and XVIII “Conclusion”

Poems: “Epitaph on the World,” “Low Anchored Cloud Mist,”
Summer Rain”



Week 6: The Poetry and Poetics of Walt Whitman

Monday October 7, 6pm EST

Readings: Walt Whitman Song of Myself and “Preface” to the Leaves of Grass, 1855



Week 7: The Later Poetry of Walt Whitman

Monday October 14, 6pm EST

Readings: Whitman, “Song of the Open Road” and Drum-Taps (1865)



Week 8: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson (Johnson edition)

Monday October 21, 6pm EST

Readings: "The Gentian weaves her fringes" 18

"I never lost as much but twice" 49

"Success is counted sweetest" 67

"Will there really be a 'Morning'" 101

"'Faith' is a fine invention" 185

"I'm 'wife' - I've finished that -" 199

"I taste a liquor never brewed" 214

"Safe in their alabaster chambers" 216

"Wild nights--wild nights" 249

"'Hope' is the thing with feathers" 257

"There's a certain slant of light" 258

"I felt a funeral in my brain" 280

"I'm nobody! Who are you" 288

"The soul selects her own society" 303

"Some keep the Sabbath going to church" 324

"Before I got my eye put out" 327

"A bird came down the walk" 328


Week 9: The Poetry of Emily Dickinson

Monday October 28, 6pm EST

Readings:

"After great pain a formal feeling comes" 341

"Much madness is divinest sense" 435

"This is my letter to the world" 441

"I heard a fly buzz" 465

"I died for beauty, but was scarce" 499

"I started early - Took my Dog -" 520

"The shut me up in prose" 613

"The Brain - is wider than the Sky-" 632

"I cannot live with You -" 640

"Pain has an element of blank" 650

"I dwell in possibility" 657

"To be alive is power" 677

"Because I could not stop for death" 712, 754,

"Split the lark and you'll find the music" 861

"A narrow fellow in the grass" 986

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant" 1129

"A word is dead when it is said" 1212

"Apparently with no surprise" 1624

"My life closed twice before its close" 1732



Week 10: Frederick Douglass and the American Jeremiad

Monday November 4, 6pm EST

Readings: Frederick Douglass, Oration titled “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”


Week 11: Edgar Allan Poe’s Poetry

Monday November 11, 6pm EST

Readings: “Sonnet: To Science,” “To Helen,” “Israfel,” “The city in the Sea,” “Alone,” “The Raven,” “Annabell Lee.”



Week 12: Herman Melville’s Poetry

Monday November 18, 6pm EST

Readings: from Battle-Pieces “The Portent,” “The March into Virginia,” Shiloh,” “The House-top”; from John Maar and Other Sailors, “The Maldive Shark”; from Timoleon, Etc., “Monody.”

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 98

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

Study the great works of the American Renaissance with me! At Harvard this fall, I'm teaching an undergraduate course on American Transcendentalism. Based on that course, my Patreon will host a beginner-friendly version that will encourage careful readings of the writings of the American Renaissance, a pivotal moment in which America discovered its distinct literary voice.

We'll read the monumental essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson; explore the sprawling genius of Walt Whitman's verse; encounter the profoundly introspective poetry of Emily Dickinson; plumb the depths of Henry David Thoreau's "Walden"; and read the eloquent jeremiads of Frederick Douglass. Other poets, such as Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville, are also included in our readings.

First-time and veteran readers are all warmly welcomed! This is an opportunity for a quality educational experience without pretension or elitism.

We will meet Monday nights 6-8pm EST for a seminar-style class with lecture and guided discussion.

Stay posted for more information or sign up for the lectures at Patreon.com/CloseReadingPoetry
To get access, sign up for the Student-Sponsor Tier on Patreon for $10/month

1 year ago | [YT] | 153

Adam Walker - Close Reading Poetry

After publishing over 12 hours of lectures on English poets this year, I'm looking forward to spending the rest of the year on American poetry. In August we'll begin a mini-course on early American poetry. This will serve as the prelude to our semester-long course on the American Renaissance in the fall!



"Introduction to Early American Poetry" explores the poetic traditions of early America from the colonial period to the early 19th century. We will read and discuss the works of Anne Bradstreet, Philip Freneau, Phillis Wheatley, and several African-American Spirituals, among other poets and poems. As students, we will give special attention to the role of poetry in early American society, culture, and identity. Through lectures, close readings, and discussions, this course will highlight the themes and stylistic features that characterize early American poetry and will consider its lasting impact on the American literary canon.
.
.
We'll also have a guest lecture from Dr. Roshad Meeks (UMass - Amherst) who will introduce us to African American-Spirituals and the vernacular tradition.
.
.
Cost to join Patreon is $10/month. Membership comes with discord community, early access to my YT videos, live-attendance of lectures over Zoom, Tea&Coffee chats with me, and guided discussions (unrecorded) after each lecture. This is a beginner-friendly course - a great way to learn more about American poetry and to discover new poets! To join us, become a Student-Supporter at Patreon.com/CloseReadingPoetry

1 year ago | [YT] | 164