Courtney Weiss Smith
@cweiss-smith.bsky.social
professor @ Wesleyan, editor @ History & Theory and Norton Anthology of English Literature, mother @ home, lover of poetry and tv and good cheese @ all the times…
Thinking about this partly because teaching a bit of John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason reminded me he was sort of brutal about this. Where’s the positive account of these possibilities?!
October 31, 2025 at 2:38 PM
Thinking about this partly because teaching a bit of John Hollander’s Rhyme’s Reason reminded me he was sort of brutal about this. Where’s the positive account of these possibilities?!
Cate Marvin’s “Death of the Humanities”:
October 23, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Cate Marvin’s “Death of the Humanities”:
First sign (literally) on campus of something I’m REALLY looking forward to this fall! www.wesleyan.edu/dac/exhibiti...
August 26, 2025 at 3:37 PM
First sign (literally) on campus of something I’m REALLY looking forward to this fall! www.wesleyan.edu/dac/exhibiti...
being in Indonesia and having a perfect breakfast is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it… :)
July 5, 2025 at 3:01 AM
being in Indonesia and having a perfect breakfast is not going to go wasted on me which is why I’m telling you about it… :)
I’m feeling pretty obsessed by @publicdomainrev.bsky.social / CP Cranch’s “literal renderings” of Emerson’s figures. The transparent eyeball! publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...
June 20, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I’m feeling pretty obsessed by @publicdomainrev.bsky.social / CP Cranch’s “literal renderings” of Emerson’s figures. The transparent eyeball! publicdomainreview.org/collection/c...
Writing the introduction to my book and basically trying to be reading and citing all of these books at the same time; gotta keep them all right next to me so I can delusionally attempt to simultaneously treat all of them in coherent sentences, going poorly…
June 9, 2025 at 2:35 PM
Writing the introduction to my book and basically trying to be reading and citing all of these books at the same time; gotta keep them all right next to me so I can delusionally attempt to simultaneously treat all of them in coherent sentences, going poorly…
The muse of poetry, looking appropriately un-chill.
April 12, 2025 at 5:42 PM
The muse of poetry, looking appropriately un-chill.
Fun etymology in class today as we talk about how the word “vaccine” is from the Latin word for “cow.” Also nice to see 18thc English folks being super chill about vaccination, no modern parallels here… 😳
April 8, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Fun etymology in class today as we talk about how the word “vaccine” is from the Latin word for “cow.” Also nice to see 18thc English folks being super chill about vaccination, no modern parallels here… 😳
Rhyme-lovers, a call for papers! David Caplan is hosting another symposium on poetic form at SMU—the first one was *fabulous*, generating real conversation among scholars & poets. Propose a paper to join us for the second iteration?! www.smu.edu/dedman/acade...
March 28, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Rhyme-lovers, a call for papers! David Caplan is hosting another symposium on poetic form at SMU—the first one was *fabulous*, generating real conversation among scholars & poets. Propose a paper to join us for the second iteration?! www.smu.edu/dedman/acade...
Will someone talk to me about this wild moment in Phillis Wheatley’s “On Messrs Hussey and Coffin” when she breaks her couplets with a prose (?) wish? I can’t think of anything like it in period poetry. Can you? Has anyone written on this?!
January 3, 2025 at 2:45 PM
Will someone talk to me about this wild moment in Phillis Wheatley’s “On Messrs Hussey and Coffin” when she breaks her couplets with a prose (?) wish? I can’t think of anything like it in period poetry. Can you? Has anyone written on this?!
Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy but isn’t a selfie.
November 28, 2024 at 2:58 PM
Show me a picture on your phone that has your energy but isn’t a selfie.
Alright, I’m ready to be here now. I like the vibes.
Tonight, I want someone to talk to me about Steve Coogan chewing the scenery in What We Do In the Shadows. Did I catch a reference to the Hellfire club? LOL
Tonight, I want someone to talk to me about Steve Coogan chewing the scenery in What We Do In the Shadows. Did I catch a reference to the Hellfire club? LOL
November 13, 2024 at 1:18 AM
Alright, I’m ready to be here now. I like the vibes.
Tonight, I want someone to talk to me about Steve Coogan chewing the scenery in What We Do In the Shadows. Did I catch a reference to the Hellfire club? LOL
Tonight, I want someone to talk to me about Steve Coogan chewing the scenery in What We Do In the Shadows. Did I catch a reference to the Hellfire club? LOL
NYT flashback quiz is worried we haven’t talked enough about the Alexander Pope / Ariana Grande connection.
March 25, 2024 at 8:27 PM
NYT flashback quiz is worried we haven’t talked enough about the Alexander Pope / Ariana Grande connection.
I’m so glad you mention this—yes! Women took this (all-male author!) test.
(Picture from special collections blog: sca.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/04/24/f...)
(Picture from special collections blog: sca.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/04/24/f...)
March 7, 2024 at 4:28 PM
I’m so glad you mention this—yes! Women took this (all-male author!) test.
(Picture from special collections blog: sca.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/04/24/f...)
(Picture from special collections blog: sca.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/04/24/f...)
Here is the Wesleyan English exam for students in 1899. Anyone want to take a stab at answering any of these?! 🤓
March 7, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Here is the Wesleyan English exam for students in 1899. Anyone want to take a stab at answering any of these?! 🤓
It’s heeeeeeeere! We’ve worked so hard and are so proud of the newest edition of Norton Anthology of English Literature. There are some genuinely big changes across the 11th edition—you can glimpse them here: seagull.wwnorton.com/nael11toc
February 25, 2024 at 8:36 PM
It’s heeeeeeeere! We’ve worked so hard and are so proud of the newest edition of Norton Anthology of English Literature. There are some genuinely big changes across the 11th edition—you can glimpse them here: seagull.wwnorton.com/nael11toc
Wheatley in London! The brilliant Abigail Zitin asked me to post this CFP for an upcoming forum in Studies in Romanticism that she and Bakary Diaby are editing. Feb. 1 deadline! press.jhu.edu/sites/defaul...
January 23, 2024 at 3:26 PM
Wheatley in London! The brilliant Abigail Zitin asked me to post this CFP for an upcoming forum in Studies in Romanticism that she and Bakary Diaby are editing. Feb. 1 deadline! press.jhu.edu/sites/defaul...
Depressing but also, like, is the poster expressing its own feeling that it doesn’t want to be littered? Or does the sign express the pov of the cans? Has the grass dissociated?
December 31, 2023 at 5:25 PM
Depressing but also, like, is the poster expressing its own feeling that it doesn’t want to be littered? Or does the sign express the pov of the cans? Has the grass dissociated?
I grew up in his navel and I was yesterday-at-a-party years old when I first heard about MIMAL. 🤯🎄
December 24, 2023 at 7:38 PM
I grew up in his navel and I was yesterday-at-a-party years old when I first heard about MIMAL. 🤯🎄
My kindergartner just asked me to pronounce this word he wrote and honestly I’m more into the challenge than I should publicly admit 🤣
October 2, 2023 at 10:44 PM
My kindergartner just asked me to pronounce this word he wrote and honestly I’m more into the challenge than I should publicly admit 🤣
From the abstract:
August 16, 2023 at 8:02 PM
From the abstract:
I mean, that seems more useful than anything one’s knowledge of Addison might contribute!?
August 4, 2023 at 5:00 PM
I mean, that seems more useful than anything one’s knowledge of Addison might contribute!?
Today in class, I want…
August 4, 2023 at 2:01 PM
Today in class, I want…
In this paper I will…
August 4, 2023 at 2:01 PM
In this paper I will…