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Key facts
| Type | Weekly Classes |
|---|---|
| Location | Oxford |
| Address | Ewert House Ewert Place Summertown Oxford |
| Dates | Thu 4 Oct to Thu 6 Dec 2012 Day: Thursday Time of meeting: 2.00-4.00pm Number of meetings: 10 |
| Subject area(s) | Literature |
| CATS points | 10 |
| Fees | From £165.00 |
| Application status | Course ended |
| Course code | O12P696LTW |
| Course contact | If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk. |
Overview
Poetry can refresh and challenge, surprise and entertain, delight and sustain. Whether you are new to poetry or an experienced reader, come along and enjoy identifying how poetry is put together and how we can find meaning in it.Description
Poetry can refresh and challenge, surprise and entertain, delight and sustain. But this can only happen if we feel we understand what a poem ‘means’, and if we enjoy the process of trying to figure it out. It isn’t difficult! Whether you are new to poetry or an experienced reader, come along and enjoy identifying how poetry is put together and how we can find meaning in it. The course will be structured by theme —landscape, love, compassion, belief, questioning, politics and memory—and will include examples from the sixteenth century to the present.Programme details
Week 1: What to look for in a poem: structures and patternsWeek 2: Reflecting on place: a selection of landscape poems
Week 3: The poetry of love: a history of the sonnet
Week 4: Word and image: some seventeenth-century poems
Week 5: Poetry and compassion: Wordworth’s radical challenge
Week 6: Poetry and belief: Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson and RS Thomas
Week 7: Poetry and questioning: Extracts from TS Eliot’s The Wasteland
Week 8: Poetry and politics: Rita Dove's 'On the Bus with Rosa Parks'
Week 9: Poetry and memory: Seamus Heaney’s Human Chain
Week 10: Student choice: bring in a poem
Background Reading:
Sheers, Owen, A Poet's Guide to Britain (Penguin 2009)
Ferguson, Slater and Stallworthy, The Norton Anthology of Poetry (Norton, 5th revised edition 2005)
Roberts, Phil., How Poetry Works (Penguin, 2nd revised edition 2000)
Staff
Mrs Myra Cottingham
Role: Tutor
Myra Cottingham taught English Literature in the School of Continuing Education at the University of Reading for many years, and was director of the...more
Course aims
Course Aim:The course aims to to give confidence to those who find reading poetry difficult and to enhance the understanding of more experienced readers.
Course Objectives:
1. To explain the techniques needed to understand, and therefore to enjoy, poetry.
2. To show how being able to identify the characteristics of poetry in different periods can aid understanding.
3. To identify how the thematic content of a poem influences our ability to 'find meaning' in it.
Assessment methods
Students will write a 1000-word piece comparing two poems, one modern and one pre-modern, or comparing two poems on the same theme. Some critical analysis of the selected poems should be included.Teaching methods
Teaching will be through a short input from the tutor followed by group discussion. Poems to be discussed will be on a handout provided by the tutor. Discussion will focus on analysis of understanding the meaning of the poem, and on technique, period and theme. Students will be asked to bring in a poem for the group to discuss in the final week.Teaching outcomes
By the end of the course students should be able to:1. Respond and find meaning in a selection of poems from a variety of periods.
2. Describe how appreciation of a poem can be enhanced by awareness of structure, rhythm, sound, etc.
3. Compare how poets treat themes in different ways.
Apply for this course
Sorry, this course is not currently accepting applications. If you have any questions about this course, please use the course enquiry form.