This course provides an introduction to the pleasures and insights of poetry. We will write poems, concentrating on multiple poetic forms such as abecedarian, sonnet, haiku, free-verse, villanelle, palindrome, and prose poetry.

We will create a portfolio of our best poems and perhaps submit them for publication! We will systematically explore the key elements of poetic

art (voice, image, suggestion, metaphor, and form) with examples drawn from the high points of language poetry* using such greats as:

• William Shakespeare,

• Emily Dickinson,

• Robert Frost,

• E. A. Robinson,

• Wallace Stevens,

• Elizabeth Bishop, and

• Langston Hughes.

Reading and writing poetry will develop your critical reading and writing skills—focusing on what literary language says explicitly and what it suggests. As you will discover, carefully studying poetry will enhance your general mastery of language, making this class well-suited to a credit in language arts.

Our class will conclude with a bohemian-style lounge performance, during which we will read our poetry to an audience! It will be held in the Cottage Theatre on the last day of class during our regularly scheduled time.

*Language poetry seeks to include the reader in the poet’s creation of meaning. Elements of language poems include fragmented images, a juxtaposition between the familiar and the absurd, and using lines of varying lengths.