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ENGL 200-01, Creative Writing: Introductory Poetry Workshop, Spring 2009
Barr, Tina
Barr, Tina
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English, Department of, Syllabus, Curriculum, Academic departments, Text, 2009 Spring
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Abstract
This class will introduce students to principles of good poetry,
including prosody, through readings in The News from Poems: A Poetry Handbook, by
your professor, (a project I’m working on) and The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry, (2
texts). Students are expected to analyze and prepare to discuss the reading, so that they
will make significant contributions to class discussion. Please don’t hesitate to share
your own interests with the class, by bringing in work by writers whose poems you
admire. The more each member contributes in different ways to the workshop the more
interesting it will be.
A word here---students sometimes think that this course will be an “easy” one, but
instead find it can be one of their most difficult classes. Most of us have written poetry to
express our feelings, but poetry is an art, and it requires perhaps more discipline and
hard work to achieve a decent poem often, than to write a good essay. You will have
to relinquish the idea that you can express your feelings on paper, and that will be
enough. It won’t. You’ll need to edit extensively, to re-think and re-write sections of
your poem in order to make it a piece of thoughtful work, rather than purely and solely an
expression of self. In addition, because you are expressing your feelings, you’ll have to
be willing to examine them and share them, and that takes courage.
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This syllabus was submitted to the Office of Academic Affairs by the course instructor.