Erik Gray

Several times throughout the course, professor Gray's lectures would make me reconsider my life and how I wanted to live it. The way he talks about these poems is genius, and I can't recommend his lectures enough. The theses he bases his lectures on are unique, and you won't be able to get this information out of any textbook.

a sweet man thats clearly passionate about what he teaches. i'd be interested to see how a discussion based class would differ from a lecture based class, but the teachings themselves were beautifully taught and very engaging. a relaxing class that reminded me how much i love poetry with a professor that made me love it even more! :)

Professor Gray is well-spoken, well-researched, impeccably organized and illuminating. That said, don't take his class if you are one of those readers interested in sociology and theory. I thought his lectures were really boring even though I knew they were very high-quality and probably interesting for students more interested in the "pure" literary and "aesthetic's sake" approaches to literature.

I'm going to agree with the person who wrote that Gray is the most overrated professor in the department. The fact that he has a gold nugget baffles me. Is he brilliant? Yes. But is he also THE WORST? Yes. Why? He picks favorites. He grades harshly. And he always thinks that he is the smartest person in the room. Enough said.

Our first day of class, Gray compared us to freshly hatched birds - something about Columbia thinking Lit Hum would give us a good first impression. It wasn't condescending, and I couldn't ask for much of a better first impression than Gray. He is sort of lanky and dorky in the way that he loves literature so much (esp. ancient Latin/Greek and Milton), but also very funny, confident, worldly, and in touch. It's a little disappointing that he doesn't let students get close enough to be friends (I think), but he did share random things, like his obsessions with Gwyneth Paltrow and the 'lovely and talented Giovanna' from the Met. He facilitated a well-paced discussion, encouraged everyone, and gave useful feedback. One thing you might not like is he grades so that everyone 'improves' over time. I had one patronizing incident with him, but wouldn't call it a general problem. Wish I could take another course with Gray, but I'm not interested in Romantic Poetry. Also, he bakes.

Erik Gray is the type of professor who makes coming to a school like this worthwhile. He's never bored me. He's too busy either saying wicked smart things about the excellent poems on the syllabus or making a witty joke. He grades papers very quickly yet manages to fill up the back page with solid comments. Take whatever he teaches.

Professor Gray is an extremely polished scholar. He knows his poetry cold (even has a lot of it memorized) and his seminar was quite enjoyable and intellectually stimulating. He is passionate about his subject matter, making the class a very wonderful one for his students as well. I thoroughly enjoyed taking his class -- it is extremely comprehensive as it comes to reading nearly the entire body of poetry written by Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge. He's also very down to earth and cool. I can't say enough great things about him.

I didn't learn much, but I probably came in at a more advanced level. Scansion and other practical formal analytical skills were the best part of the course.

I am very new to poetry. I wanted to learn how to read and understand poetry. You do not learn the basics in the close, but you will talk about poetry enough to pick this up. Professor Gray's lectures are outstanding. He clearly loves the subject and wants all his students to appreciate it.

quite easy- two essays and a final. the midterm is only mandatory if you decide to not attend recitation, but i would recommend recitation nonetheless. the reading for each class was pretty light and also its poetry so its quite enjoyable to read lol. definitely not a hard course by any means.