ENGL 300-01, Intermediate Poetry Workshop, Fall 2012

Abstract

This course is designed to help participants broaden and enhance their approach to poetic form. While we can agree that all poems make use of form, our discussions will focus primarily on metrics, specific stanza patterns, and received forms such as the sonnet, sestina, and pantoum. We will consider both visual and aural aspects of form—the experience of reading a printed poem, and the experience of hearing it read aloud. We will read a large sampling of poems, from Anglo-Saxon verse to contemporary lyrics, and we will compose poems in a variety of forms, experimenting with structure, shape, texture, rhythm, and sound.