Dickey is a sweetheart who really cares about his class. You can feel his passion in every lecture. The midterm was easy but the final was hard. The essay you get from day one so you have time to start early and can't be mad when the due date comes around in like week 8. The class didn't teach me how to write poetry like I wanted but it did grow my appreciation for the art.

This class was a rollercoaster for me. As previous reviews have noted, there are really no assignments other than the midterm, the essay, and the final. The midterm was difficult. We were asked to write an analytical essay on a poem we have never seen within 1.5 hours. We never went over writing analytical essays, so all the students kind of went in bad. I came out of the exam not very confident and was extremely surprised when I had received a A+. A few weeks later in week 9, a 6-8 page paper on a poem was due. I was super proud and confident that I did well - I got a C. At this point, this class became frustrating as we weren't being graded on what we were learning. In lecture, we went over poems in a seminar style - not once going over any techniques. Going into the final, I was scared. We were asked to basically memorize 100 pages on poetry and asnwer questions on them on top of writing 2 essays within the three hours. After the final, I was convinced I had failed. This class that I was acing through 9 weeks felt like it just suplexed me and my GPA into the ground. A class that required little no no effort that was going to give me a C really pissed me off. I check myUCLA during spring break and my official grade is marked as an A. Professor never told us about any curve or the grade distribution. I still don't even know my final. I have to reccomend this class as an GE becuase it is by all definitions an easy A, but a surprsing one, if that makes sense.

This class is great! I really look at poetry in a different light now. Professor Dickey is funny, charismatic, and extremely passionate about his students and poetry. I wish I could take another class with him. Lectures are more focused on dissecting poems as a class and learning how to read poetry rather than on vocab or presentations. Because of this, it can be easy to start to get distracted in class, but paying attention to the discussions really helps for the tests. The midterm and final were relatively easy and consisted mostly of long-answer poem analysis. The final did have some specific questions about poets and poems read in class, the best way to prepare for this is really just to pay attention in class and take time to review the poems and themes read over the quarter. There is one 5-6 page essay on a poem of your choice that was a little tedious but not too bad. You also have to write one poem that is graded for completion as well as memorize and recite a poem of your choice for the class. Both the professor and TAs are enthusiastic and eager to help students. I had a sudden medical disturbance the morning of the final and Professor Dickey was extremely accommodating and allowed me to take the final a few days later. If you don't mind lots of reading and are looking for a GE to take I recommend this class!

This class wasn't necessarily what I expected it to be, but I still found it fairly enjoyable! I personally found some of the content a bit dry and technical (counting syllables and identifying stresses), but the engaging lecture and discussion format made up for it. Your grade is 25% attendance/participation, 20% midterm, 25% essay, and 30% final exam. If you pay attention to the poetic devices and read all the poems after the midterm (content from these poems showed up on the final), then you should be perfectly fine. Make sure to be active in discussion and nice to your TA (they basically determine your entire grade)! I felt like I bombed the essay on the midterm, but my TA's grading was so lenient that I still ended up getting an A on it. Professor Dickey definitely does a great job at giving students an opportunity to have intellectual discussions rather than boring us with endless Powerpoints/slides!

Professor Dickey was incredibly interesting and really cared about student engagement! There was virtually no homework and only 2 assignments (graded on completion) that you have to do throughout the quarter, besides the midterm and final. I just wish that he recorded the lectures.

Because there is not really an outline of exactly what you "need to know," it's important to pay attention to lecture in order to prepare for the midterm and final, but honestly doing the bare minimum: paying attention to while he's lecturing, can get you an A :)))

Professor Stephen J Dickey is the best Professor I have ever had at UCLA. He is extremely passionate regarding teaching and poetry. He is an extremely interesting person and teaches us the poems in an extremely passionate manner. He wants the students to discuss and deliberate with him and the Class and add to the teaching process. I learned a lot in this Class.
He assigns poems each and every week which he then teaches and discusses in Class. They are not compulsory but doing even one poem every week will help you in the Midterm and the Final (it was optional for Winter 2020). The section is compulsory and my TA was a hard grader, but I cannot emphasize more how helpful she was. She was great! You had to be 'visible' in the section and had to contribute to the activities. After that, there was an Essay where you had to write on a poem in extreme detail. Having said all this, the course load is doable as long as you are on top of it.

If you have a chance to take any Class with Stephen Dickey at UCLA, do not hesitate for even one second and just take it. You will not regret it at all.

I really liked this class and Dickey is such an amazing professor. He is very thoughtful and caring towards students. With a personal interest in poetry, I enjoyed it very much. You read a bunch of poems for each class. I thought the whole thing was very reasonable, but somehow the grading scheme messed things up for me at the end (I don't think I got a grade equivalent to the work I put in, but I don't really care about my grade too much). Gonna chalk it up to my TA who I will leave unnamed. The professor is great.

Dr. Dickey is an awesome person and is very welcoming and easily approachable. The class itself is pretty straightforward: you go into deep analysis of poetry. By deep analysis, I mean analyzing every single word and pattern in the meter etc.
The workload is pretty manageable: Read 6-10 poems that are assigned before each lecture. I personally read maybe 25% or less of the poems and still got an A in the class, however if you actually read every poem you will be much less stressed towards the final. There were also two pop quizzes about the readings but they were very straightforward and not meant to trick you, and also not worth a great amount of points if they were anything beyond participation (though this does mean you should attend all of the lectures!)
The professor also requests we recite a poem in front of the class anytime before the 6th week and turn in our own written poem by the end of the 8th week. These two are pretty much just graded for completion.
The last major assignment is a 6-8 page essay graded by your TA which is 25% of the grade.
The midterm is 20% of your grade and has 10 questions about readings/literary devices, two poems that you have to annotate/close-read, and an essay portion where you choose one of the two poems you annotated to analyze in an essay.
Jessica was my TA and she graded pretty fairly and more generously in the essay portion.
For her discussion, she requires that you turn in one annotated poem before the 5th week (or somewhere around that time) and that you have at least one OH appointment to discuss your essay with her before the 9th week, though multiple is always better! And lastly she requires you to post once a week on CCLE, analyzing a poem about the length of one page double length, which usually takes less than an hour.
So I'd say the weekly workload for this class is only an hour if you do the bare minimum, and 2-3 hours per week if you stay on top of things, which I believe is pretty reasonable.
The lectures are engaging and Dr. Dickey is an awesome professor, although it's easy to get distracted. A majority of the lecture is him analyzing the poems from the reading, while also spending some time introducing a new concept (which, to be honest, is usually somewhat obscure and hard to grasp, but I'm sure it'd be easier if I listened more closely).
Overall, I do recommend this class as a GE, and it helps you to appreciate detail and art that goes into poetry, but I personally was not in love with the class and I have no incredibly strong positive or negative opinion on it.

Selling book for $20:
Norton Anthology of Poetry Fifth Edition by Ferguson, Salter, and Stallworthy.
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