Writing Poetry: An Introduction



Overview

You will learn and practise essential techniques for writing traditional kinds of poetry, as well as free verse, in the presentations, discussions and workshops of this course. Different classes will focus on different themes, techniques and forms.

Weekly prompts for poems will give you the opportunity to experiment with the ballad measure, the sonnet, and the villanelle, among other traditional forms. You will also be taught strategies for making the rules up yourself, and breaking them, when writing free verse.

Along the way we will focus on different aspects of the craft, from metre and rhyme, through handling syntax and lineation, to a consideration of imagery and symbolism. You will also learn about imitation, allusion, and the use of rhetoric in poetry.

Old and new poems will be presented as exemplars in each session so that you can learn to read familiar and not-so-familiar poetry as a poet. In this way the poets in any anthology can become your teachers. But you will also present your own work each week in a friendly workshop environment and learn how to critique the work of others.

Programme details

Courses starts: 22 Jan 2026

Week 1: Introduction: finding themes and revising

Week 2: The Ballad Measure

Week 3: The Stanza

Week 4: The Sonnet

Week 5: Nature Poetry

Week 6: The Conversation Poem

Week 7: The Villanelle

Week 8: Free Verse I

Week 9: Free Verse II

Week 10: Final Workshop

Certification

Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) Points

Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail. Please follow this link for more information on Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS) points

Digital Certificate of Completion 

Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.

Please note students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.

Fees

Description Costs
Course fee (with no assessment) £300.00
Assessment and Accreditation fee £60.00

Funding

If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, you are a full-time student in the UK or a student on a low income, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:

Concessionary fees for short courses

Tutor

Dr Edward Clarke

Edward Clarke’s poetry collections include Cherubims (Kelsay Books, 2022) and A Book of Psalms (Paraclete Press, 2020). His critical books include The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books, 2014) and The Later Affluence of Yeats and Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012).

Course aims

To introduce students to different ways of writing poetry.

Course objectives:

1. To introduce students to different techniques and forms of poetry through the examination of old and new examples of poetry.

2. To provide prompts each week for poems so participants can explore different techniques and forms in their own writing.

3. To create a cohesive, mutually supportive, but rigorous group in which the contributors’ own work can be developed and evaluated.

Teaching methods

Teaching and Learning will take place mainly in presentations, group discussions and workshop sessions. During each class students will be introduced to the work of contemporary and earlier poets as a means of exploring different techniques, styles of poetic practice and forms, and to help provide prompts for the writing of their own poems, but the students’ own work will be the main focus each week in the workshops.

Learning outcomes

  • Students will have a sound knowledge of different techniques and forms of poetry;
  • they will be able to write and revise poems to final draft stage using different techniques and forms; 
  • and be able to give sound, in-depth judgements on the writing of others.

Assessment methods

Formative assessment each week in workshop: peer review of student's poems as well as specific and general advice from the tutor.

Summative assessment, Option A: folder of four poems.

Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation will submit coursework.

 

Application

To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee per course. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. Please use the 'Book now' button on this page. Alternatively, please complete an Enrolment form for short courses | Oxford University Department for Continuing Education

Students who do not register for assessment and credit during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Level and demands

The Department's Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, i.e. first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.

Terms & conditions for applicants and students

Information on financial support