Key facts

Type	Weekly Classes
Location	Oxford
Address	Ewert House Ewert Place Summertown
Dates	Fri 5 Oct to Fri 7 Dec 2012 Day: Friday Time of meeting: 10.30am-12.30pm Number of meetings: 10
Subject area(s)	Creative Writing
CATS points	10
Fees	From £170.00
Application status	Course ended
Course code	O12P644CRW
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email ppweekly@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Overview

This course will help you write poetry with confidence and originality. Exploring a variety of contemporary poetry, you will broaden your range and enrich the texture, vitality and precision of your writing. New and experienced poets welcome.

Description

Focusing on finding a fresh perspective, we will proceed via close readings, group exercises and textual experiments to help develop the skills needed for beginning, developing and redrafting poerty. A range of techniques will be introduced during the course, which is designed to invigorate all poets, novices and experienced alike, with the excitement of the craft. There will be a special emphasis on close reading of a range of contemporary poets, learning and responding to the forms and styles they use. Over the 10 weeks of the course, you will be taken from the early stages of the development of the poem, through the writing and editing process, and finally to the completion of the finished work and publication. You will leave the course with a portfolio of work, an understanding of the craft of poetry and a toolkit for effective future poetry practice.

Programme details

Week 1: Bring in a poem you love, to discuss with the class. Ways to start.
Week 2: Origins of poetry. Exploring the places where poems come from. Life writing and memory
Week 3: The mechanics of poetry - rhyme, rhythm and metre
Week 4: Forms and Styles. When to use different forms, and when to go free-form.
Week 5: The importance of the editing process. Developing a critical ear and eye.
Week 6: Making poetry sing. The importance of concrete imagery.
Week 7: Figurative language - metaphor, metonym and more.
Week 8: Point of view in poetry. Subjectivity and distance.
Week 9: How to handle narrative. Looking at the epic.
Week 10: Final workshop. Polishing and correcting.

Background Reading:
Strand, M., and Boland, E., The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, (W. W. Norton & Co., 2001)

Staff

Course aims

Course Aim:
To familiarise new and experienced writers with the skills needed to craft interesting, effective and original poetry.

Course Objectives:
Course objectives:
1. To produce a portfolio of poetry, in a range of forms and styles, ready for submission
2. To examine key technical concepts and practice in the work of other poets, and to start developing an individual technical approach
3. To understand, through practice and discussion, the key elements in the process of creating and editing poetry, up to and including submission to publictaion

Assessment methods

A range of writing tasks will be set during the course, in order to develop skills in many of the different forms of contemporary poetry.
To achieve a credit, students will need to complete the writing tasks, plus submit a portfolio of four poems comprising approximately 130 lines of verse, or an equivalent agreed with the tutor. The first drafts of these poems will need to be submitted at week 5 and the final submission made at week 9.

Teaching methods

Presentations from the tutor on poetry topics
Discussion and review of a range of contemporary poets
Close analysis of different types of poetry
Practical writing exercises
Discussion of students' work in small groups
Analysis of published work
Ongoing projects with feedback from the tutor

Teaching outcomes

By the end of the course students will be expected to:
1. Be able to recognise, appreciate and have an opinion on a range of contemporary poetic forms.
2. Produce poetry using a variety of styles and techniques in a confident, effective and original manner.
3. Be able to review and revise their own poems ready for submission to publication

Fee options

Programme Fee

EU Fee: £170.00

Non-EU Fee: £170.00

Apply for this course