Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.

January 2025  Launchpad  Hybrid
Mixed Lecture/Discussion • Medium intensity
JRR Tolkien is one of those rare authors whose poetry is as accomplished as his prose writing. Up to this point, though, those who wished to focus primarily on Tolkien’s poetry had to access a significant number of books and online resources to do so, as they were scattered far and wide. Now, a Most Delightful Event has occurred – for the first time, a collected volume of Tolkien’s poetry is available, and it is a Tome of Significant Size!

In this hybrid course, we will read and discuss a selection of these poems, enjoying them for their aesthetic appeal as well as analysing them for Tolkien’s style, use of language, and the poetic forms he employed. This is a hybrid course, in which one class per week will be a lecture and the second class will be group discussion.

There are so many poems in these volumes that the intention is to spread the course over several months. If you can’t make one or more of the months, feel free to dip in and out as suits you!

I am also delighted to announce that one lecture session per month will be led by the one and only James Tauber, who will focus on language and the formal elements of the poetry.

Bonus Lecture from Dr. Olsen each month! We are delighted to announce that each month Dr. Corey Olsen will offer a bonus lecture on Tolkien's poetry. Each month the SPACE team will share Dr. Olsen's bonus lecture with all enrolled students that month in The Poetic Corpus of J. R. R. Tolkien series.

Required Texts

A copy of The Collected Poems of J.R.R. Tolkien: Three-Volume Box Set, edited by Christina Scull and Wayne G. Hammond will be required either as hard copy or as e-book.

This class needs 3 more votes to get confirmed.

This module is a standing candidate which means it will be ready to launch as soon as it gets enough interest. Token holders can set aside a Token to reserve their seat for this candidate and help it get confirmed.

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This will be a Hybrid class (4 lectures & 4 discussion sessions). Each week will consist of 1 hour of recorded lecture and 1 hour of live discussion (not recorded) for a total of 8 class hours over the course of the month.

DELIVERY PLAN
1. The Monday sessions each week will be a lecture session (pre-recorded or recorded live TBD) and shared with all students afterward in case they wish to review the session or were unable to attend it live.
2. The second session each week will be a live discussion session (not recorded).

Days and Times


Monday Lectures (Live or Pre-Recorded): Meeting for four 1-hour Lectures with Dr. Sara Brown (and/or guest James Tauber) meeting on Mondays at 11:00 AM Eastern Time on Jan 6, 13, 20, and 27 (and a pre-recorded bonus lecture from Dr. Corey Olsen will be shared with all enrolled students at a time yet to be determined.


Discussion Session Times (Not Recorded): Thursdays at 3:00 PM Eastern for four 1-hour sessions on January 9, 16, 23, 30

Signum Time
US/Eastern
Guests Note Your Time
unknown
Mon, Jan 6
11:00 AM
No live class this day: This will be a PRE-RECORDED lecture disseminated to all enrolled students
Thu, Jan 9
3:00 PM
DISCUSSION SESSION... note the discussion times are TBD
Mon, Jan 13
11:00 AM
photo of James Tauber
James Tauber
Guest Lecture (recorded live)
Thu, Jan 16
3:00 PM
DISCUSSION SESSION... note the discussion times are TBD
Mon, Jan 20
11:00 AM
Lecture (recorded live or pre-recorded TBD)
Thu, Jan 23
3:00 PM
DISCUSSION SESSION... note the discussion times are TBD
Mon, Jan 27
11:00 AM
Lecture (recorded live or pre-recorded TBD)
Thu, Jan 30
3:00 PM
DISCUSSION SESSION... note the discussion times are TBD
If you have any questions about the SPACE program, please reach out to [email protected].