ENGB60 Creative Writing: Poetry I. A focused introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will enable students to explore the writing of poetry through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
A focused introduction to the writing of poetry. This course will enable students to explore the writing of poetry through reading, discussion, and workshop sessions.
Course Time: Mondays 11:00—1:00 EST
Office Location and Hours: HW 315, Office Hours TBD
Course Description:
One thing distinguishes writers of poetry from others: they write poems. Writing is a practice. It is not a feeling, an inspiration, a state or quality of emotion, or an aspiration, even if all of these play a pivotal role in the work. What matters is what’s on the page.
Further, reading is a fundamental part of the practice of any writer. Hence, you have assigned reading, and each of you should have your own poetry reading agendas as well. If you want to write poetry, you need to read poetry. And while there is much to be learned from historical English poetry, we are contemporary writers, and as such we must read contemporary poetry.
With these things in mind, the focus of our work will be on reading and on writing new poems. In addition, the majority of our in-class time will be devoted to the workshopping of our classmates’ poems. We have a short time together, so necessarily each student’s personal workshop time is limited. However, good writers are good readers. Every editorial skill we learn in workshop, whether focussed on our own writing or a classmate’s, serves to make us better writers.
Further, because of the limited time we have and the necessity to stick to our workshop schedule, workshop times cannot be rescheduled, nor can materials be accepted late. Your meeting workshop deadlines or not meeting them will affect everyone else, so we have to stick to our schedule.
In his book, Three Genres, Stephen Minot proposes five fundamental qualities that distinguish poetry from prose:
· utilizing the line as the primary unit rather than the sentence.
· a heightened use of images.
· greater attention to the sound of words.
· development of rhythm.
· creating density by implying far more than is stated.
These are the five qualities by which we will measure the work of our classmates during workshops, and they are the qualities by which your work will be evaluated by classmate and for the purposes of grading.
Required Texts:
ü The Poet’s Companion, Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux
ü The Strategic Poet, Ed. Diane Lockward
Grading:
In-class participation—10%
Critical Poem Response 1—10%
Critical Poem Response 2—10%
Mid-term Portfolio—20%
Final Writing Portfolio—50%
Further Thoughts:
The primary focus of our work will be on reading, writing new work, and peer workshops focused on each student’s writing. Two definitions of peer will be helpful::
Ø an equal, as in natural gifts or in social rank;
Ø to look narrowly or searchingly, as in an effort to see clearly.
As the first of these definitions suggests, each participant in the workshops will be equally responsible & accountable, and as the second definition suggests, the workshops will necessitate close examination and discussion of each student’s work, with an emphasis on the tools & techniques, Minot’s five fundamental qualities of the writing.
It is important to remember that this is not a lecture course; this is a seminar/workshop course.
We have textbooks, and you are expected to read and consider what they have to say; in fact, it is imperative that you do so to effectively participate in the workshops and to improve your own writing. However, much of our in-class time will be spent work shopping each other’s writing—the readings from the texts will allow us to participate in these discussions in an informed and intelligent manner, while also informing and inspiring our own writing. In other words, much of the work and much of the satisfaction you can derive from the course depends upon your ability and willingness to work independently.
COURSE SCHEDULE:
SEPTEMBER
12 Introductions
19 The PC, Images + Simile and Metaphor
26 The PC, A Grammatical Excursion + The SP, Descriptive Detail
OCTOBER
3 The PC, Music of the Line + The SP Syntax
Critical Poem Response #1 Due
10 READING WEEK
17 The PC, Writing and Knowing + The SP, Diction
GROUP I, Workshops 1
24 The PC, The Family: Inspiration and Obstacle + The SP, Imagery
GROUP II, Workshops 1
31 The PC, Death and Grief + The SP, Sound Devices
***MID-TERM PORTFOLIO DUE***
GROUP III, Workshops 1
NOVEMBER
7 The PC, Writing the Erotic + The SP, Repetition
Critical Poem Response #2 Due
GROUP IV, Workshops 1
14 The PC, The Shadow + The SP, Simile
GROUP I, Workshops 2
21 The PC, Witnessing + The SP, Metaphor
GROUP II, Workshops 2
28 The PC, Poetry of Place + The SP, Personification
GROUP III, Workshops 2
DECEMBER
5 The PC, Voice and Style + The Energy of Revision
GROUP IV, Workshops 2
***Final Portfolios Due***
Workshop Format:
You have been assigned to a Workshop Group and each group has been assigned Workshop Dates on the Course Schedule. It is your responsibility to know which group you are in and when your workshops are scheduled.
Because of the highly interactive & participative nature of workshop classes, enrolment is limited. The limited size of the class is meant to allow for a high degree of participation from every student and to allow for a close and ongoing scrutiny of each student’s writing.
Workshops will serve as a critical forum in which student writing is subjected to editorial and intellectual review by all participants.
Since such skills are essential to any writer’s own practice, part of the objective of the class will be for students to acquire workshop skills: to learn to participate actively in close examination and discussion focused on the writing of classmates, and to learn about their own writing from the scrutiny applied by the instructor and classmates.
You will provide the class with emailed word documents of your own creative writing one week prior to your workshops. Each submission will consist of 2 poems totaling no more than 4 pages. Each poem must appear on a separate page.
Further, each student will provide each writer whose work is being workshopped with typed comments of no more than 1-page in length on the writing. The comments should include 1 aspect of the work you thought was especially effective, 1 aspect you thought could be more effective, and one aspect you are unsure of or unclear about.
All material submitted for peer-review MUST be typed. And make sure everything you hand in for the class is clearly labeled with the information you would normally provide on a title page for any assignment. Failure o do so will mean you will not receive credit for the work.
Your classmates will read the work and come to class prepared to provide you with constructive criticism.
Constructive criticism means that participants should come prepared to fully express and explain specific aspects of the writing that are or are not successful, and things that perhaps they are still wondering about; in other words, come with lingering questions.
This criticism should include aspects of both the form and content of the work being considered. The object of this criticism should be to provide feedback that will help the writer become more aware of both the strengths & weaknesses of their own writing.
WORKSHOP GROUPS
GROUP I
Naomi Cabral
Ariel Douskos
Osmond Hui
Santiago Izaciga
Armin Kazi
GROUP II
Ptolomeus Kolopanis
Michael Lewczuk
Loreno Madrazo
Ethan Joseph Mariano
Raby Nguer
GROUP III
Asel Ozel
Vasilios Panagakos
Riya Patni
Elora Pharai
Reena Sarju
GROUP IV
Ashnie Sukhu
Erynne Sutanto
Sophia Yama
Huda Zavery
Chris Zdravko
POETRY TOOLS:
The five fundamental qualities that distinguish poetry from prose (Three Genres)
· utilizing the line as the primary unit rather than the sentence.
· a heightened use of images.
· greater attention to the sound of words.
· development of rhythm.
· creating density by implying far more than is stated.
Questions for analyzing poetry (Little Brown Handbook)
ü What parts interest or puzzle you? What words seem especially striking or unusual?
ü How would you describe the poem’s speaker (sometimes called the persona or voice)? (The speaker may be very different from the author.) What tone or emotion do you detect—for instance, anger, affection, sarcasm? Does the tone change during the poem?
ü What is the structure of the poem? Are there stanzas (groups of lines separated by space)? If so, how is the thought related to the stanzas?
ü What is the theme of the poem: what is it about? Is the theme stated or implied?
ü What images do you find—evocations of sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell? Is there a surprising pattern of images—say, images of business in a poem about love? What does the poem suggest symbolically as well as literally? (Trust your responses.
If you don’t sense a symbolic overtone, move on. Don’t hunt for symbols.)