This class will start with an intensive study of the traditional elements of the craft of poetry: meter, line, stanza, form, the poetic conceit, metaphor, etc. We will then move on to study the elements of the craft of free verse, which we’ll find isn’t as free as one might think. This class will also progress in historical time: we’ll start working with some of the earliest English poetic forms and continue on to a study of contemporary poetry. Wit and imaginative play will be exercised.