Course Description:

“I’m gonna float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. / His hands can’t hit what his eyes can’t see.” –Muhammad Ali.  Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, American poets have turned to popular (and not so popular) sports as subjects and figures to express themes of human achievement, love, struggle and suffering, and deep philosophical and spiritual contemplation.  Explore a wide range of American poetry and the role of sports in our understanding of race, gender, class, sexuality, and public and private life.  Talk with guest speakers, attend sporting events, compose original work, and conduct your own sports poetry research.

Course Details:

• 4 Credits
• CRN 12077
• MWF 11-11:50
• 101 Volcanology

About the Instructor: Corbett Upton

Corbett Upton received his PhD from the University of Oregon in nineteenth- and twentieth-century American poetry. He has been teaching literature and writing courses at the UO for 8 years. His current research project explores the influence of iconic poems on American literary history and criticism. His interest in this course grows out of this research as many of the most famous American sports poems and songs have become iconic such as Jack Norworth’s “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic, Sung in the Year 1888,” shaping the popular conceptions of sports poetry.

Dr. Upton confesses to have participated in a wide range of team and outdoors sports with an equally wide range of success and can be found outside the classroom fishing the rivers of the Oregon Coast Range or attending Eugene’s many team sports events. Dr. Upton is the Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies for the English Department.