Face to face

This course is appropriate for beginners and those who have written some poetry but who would like to take a more structured approach to their writing. You will examine the basics of rhyme, metre, verse forms, lineation and stanza structure. Through exercises, reading, writing and feedback, you will also begin to construct a voice, to create shapes on the page and develop your first drafts with confidence.

Term One

Week One: Imitations
Presentations - 'Formal Wear: notes on rhyme, meter, stanza and pattern' – George Szirtes

Weeks Two - Four: Rhyme and Rhythm
Poems by Sylvia Plath, George Macbeth, Kay Ryan, Catherine Bowman, Theodore Roethke
Exercise: Rhyming trail poem
Exercise: Ballroom dance poem

Weeks Five - Seven: Sonnets
Introduction to 101 Sonnets – Don Paterson
Poems by Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, CK Williams, Billy Collins
Exercise: Sonnet

Weeks Eight - Ten: Villanelles, Sestinas
Poems by Derek Mahon, Elizabeth Bishop, Michael Donaghy, Dylan Thomas
Exercise: Villanelle / Sestina

Week Ten: Summary

Useful Reading

• The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms Mark Strand and Eavan Boland, eds. (Norton, 2000)
• Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse Mary Oliver (Mariner Books, 1998)
• 101 Sonnets from Shakespeare to Heaney Don Paterson, ed (Faber, 1999)
• The Making of a Sonnet: A Norton Anthology Edward Hirsch and Eavan Boland, eds (Norton, 2008)

Term Two

Week One: Definitions of Poetry
Basil Bunting’s ‘Advice to Poets’
‘The Plain Sense of Things’ – Wallace Stevens
Exercise One: A Desolate Landscape

Week Two: Presentations

Week Three: Thoughts on Process
Essays by Eavan Boland, Mark Doty, Tamar Yoseloff
Exercise Two: The Immediacy of Condition

Week Four: Presentations

Weeks Five and Six: Lineation and Stanzaic Structure
Poems by Seamus Heaney, Sharon Olds, John Burnside, Jorie Graham
Exercise Three: Lineation experiments

Week Seven: Line versus Sentence
Poems by Raymond Carver and Alice Oswald
Exercise Four: Poem for Workshop Sessions

Weeks Eight, Nine and Ten: Workshopping

Week Ten: Summary
Exercise Five: Imitation

Useful Reading:

• Emergency Kit, Jo Shapcott and Matthew Sweeney, eds. (Faber 2004)
• A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver (Harcourt Brace, 1994)
• Writing Poetry, W.N. Herbert (Routledge, 2010)

This course is suitable for beginners. The exact poems under discussion might change. It's best to start in the Autumn term, as the course is cumulative, but it's possible to join in Spring as long as students are not absolute beginners. No new students in the Summer term, as during this term, students work on their own writing portfolios.