Intensive poetry workshop. Emphasis discussion and critical analysis of works by professional writers, with discussion and production of student poems and critical writings. All too often, we thrill to initial “inspiration” only to have the piece peter out long before it is fully realized in idea, image, setting, or music. As an advanced class, we will focus on poetic structure as various patterns of the poetic turn, the calculated swervings, switches and surprises that make for interesting writing. During these ten weeks, we’ll pay close attention to opening and closing gestures, and the development of at least two specific types of poetic turns (the descriptive-meditative and the retrospective-prospective structures).

Prerequisites:

ENGL 383, 384