Spring 2007

E 325 • Creative Writing: Poetry

Course Description

What makes a poem a poem?
What makes a poem any good?
How do I make an "any good" poem?
Why should I bother?

This course invites its participants to ask, consider and, possibly, answer the above questions vis-à-vis their own poems and the poetries of contemporary authors. And we will approach these questions from as many angles as there are kinds of poems. Issues of form and structure will be considered. Diction and language will be examined. Topics concerning race, gender, age and class will be introduced. We will consider, too, the influence of different movements and schools of poetry on contemporary poetics, from the Confessionalists to the Neo-Formalists, to the Language Poets, to the current phenomena of the Blogger-Poet.

But this is primarily a workshop. As such, our main concern will be the original, creative work submitted weekly by the members of the class.

Grading Policy

Grades are determined by active participation in the critiques, participation in exercises both in and out of class, the completion of the reading assignments as well as a submission of a final portfolio of poems to the instructor. Attendance will also be a factor.

Texts

Contemporary American Poetry, R. S. Gwynn and April Lindner, eds
W.D. Snodgrass, De-Compositions
The original poems of the members of the class

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