Poetry Writing I is a 10-week workshop, which includes lectures, exercises, and the critiquing of student projects. It’s for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Consider it the caviar of literature: tiny eggs with tremendous taste. Or the nitroglycerin: every drop explosive. Poetry's power has endured thousands of years, captivating the most passionate souls. If you hear mermaids singing or feel the winnowing wind or see the sun rising in ribbons, then you are one of these blissful few.
To write excellent poetry, you must learn the art of packing the maximum punch with a minimum of words. Here you will learn about the specialized techniques, demands, and forms of poetry, as well as how to market your work.
If you seek to write for publication or performance, yourself or the world, we’ll show you how to write exquisite poetry.
This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of poetry craft and gets you writing one or two poems. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
- Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)
Online classes
- Week 1
- Introduction to Poetry: What makes it poetry? Line breaks. Figurative language and imagery. Sound—rhythm, meter, rhyme. Free vs. form. Where to get inspiration.
- Week 2
- Line breaks: How line affects rhythm and sound. White space. Emotional impact.
- Week 3
- Figurative Language & Imagery: Figurative language—metaphor, simile, personification, onomatopoeia, synesthesia. Finding images. Bringing images to life.
- Week 4
- Sound: Rhythm. Meter. Rhyme. Repetition. Alliteration. Assonance. Consonance.
- Week 5
- Classic Forms: Sonnet. Sestina. Villanelle. Pantoum. Haiku. Haibun. Apostrophe. Narrative.
- Week 6
- Contemporary Forms: Prose poem. Found poetry. Persona. Ekphrasis. Narrative.
- Week 7
- Voice: Voice defined. Types of voice and vision. Finding your voice. Style. Digging deeper.
- Week 8
- Imitation and Themes: Gaining inspiration and technique through imitation. Responding to themes. Drawing out your uniqueness.
- Week 9
- Revision: Stages of revision. Techniques for testing your work. The art of reduction. Knowing when it's done.
- Week 10
- Publication and the Poetry Scene: Finding homes for your work. The submission process. Participating in the poetry scene.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
This course is available for "remote" learning and will be available to anyone with access to an internet device with a microphone (this includes most models of computers, tablets). Classes will take place with a "Live" instructor at the date/times listed below.
Upon registration, the instructor will send along additional information about how to log-on and participate in the class.