Academics > Colleges/Schools and Departments > College of Humanities and Fine Arts > English and Philosophy > Faculty > Barbara Mather Cobb
Barbara Mather Cobb
Professor of English
Coordinator, Liberal Arts Major
"Analyzing a good poem is like taking apart—and putting back together—a complex machine. Every part is unique, and every part is integral: the diction, the syntax, the many kinds of figurative language, the sound devices, the rhythm, the meter, the very structure. When we see how a poem is constructed, and see and hear it at work, we recognize its beauty and artistry. That’s exciting, and addictive. That’s what makes poetry so very fun.”
Dr. Cobb holds a giant compass.
Highlighted Publications
"'Shakespeare? I've Been Doing That Since I Was 9': Shakespeare in the Classroom, Grades 3-8." Elementary Education Webinar - 2011. Folger Shakespeare Library, 3 Oct. 2011.
"When...Then...So... Sonnet 29." Folger Shakespeare Library, May 2012.
"'My ___ Is Nothing like ___' Sonnet 130 and Building a Poem." Folger Shakespeare Library, Nov. 2011.
"'To old Freetown, our common judgement-place': Commoners in Romeo Juliet." Journal of the Wooden O Symposium (Spring 2011).
“’Excribe’-ing, Esteem, and Estimation: Jonson as Window to the 'Soule of the Age.'” The CEA Critic 71.1 (2008): 1-11.
“'Suppose that you have seen the well-appointed king': Imagining Succession in the Henriad.” Cahiers Elisabethains 70 (2006): 33-8.
“Jonson’s Conversations with William Drummond: A History.” Ben Jonson Journal 13.2 (2006): 29-42.
“Taking the Intimidation Out of Scansion: A Practical Approach.” English Journal 96.1 (2006): 56-61.
Courses Taught
ENG 099 Transitions (first-year orientation)
ENG 105 Critical Reading, Writing and Inquiry
ENG 221 Introduction to English Studies
ENG 303 British Literature to 1760
ENG 316 Bible as Literature
ENG 334 Shakespeare
ENG 411 Non-Shakespearean Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama
ENG 428 Renaissance Literature (Continental)
ENG 436 17th-Century British Literature (non-dramatic)
ENG 607 Milton
ENG 645 Non-Dramatic English Renaissance Literature ENG 647 Shakespeare
ENG 649 17th-Century British Literature
HON 251 Honors Seminar in Literature and Philosophy I
HUM 211 The Western Humanities Tradition
LBA 099 Transitions
LBA 438 Seminar in Liberal Arts
Awards and Distinctions
Regents Teaching Award, Murray State University, 2012
10 years of service recognition, Murray State University, 2012
Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society Love of Learning Award, 2010
Omicron Kappa Delta Advisor of the Year, Murray State University, 2010
Robert A. Miller Memorial Prize (best essay in a College English Association publication),
2009
Summer Institute Fellowship, National Humanities Center, 2003
Professional Memberships and Affiliations
College English Association
Midwest Modern Language Association
Modern Language Association
Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society
Regents Residential College
Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association
South Atlantic Modern Language Association