CRW 3311 Spring 2024

In this introduction to writing poetry, we will read and experiment with a variety of strategies and forms as you begin the journey of sorting out the sense of self you had when you arrived from the varying points of view you’ll have an opportunity to inhabit. Short lectures on craft and mechanics, writing exercises, and discussion of model texts will help you make sense of your evolving worldviews, artistic voices, and creative ideas. After a period of experimentation, peer workshops will help demystify the revision process as you improve your facility with respectfully giving and receiving constructive feedback. We will cover a vast survey of formal conventions emerging from historical and contemporary traditions in the West and East. As we develop facility with key terms—including image/object, introspection, voice, the line, syntax, prosody, etc.—we will experiment with traditional forms (Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnet, villanelle, haiku, ballad stanza, etc.) as well as those you might not have encountered, including the pantoum and the ghazal.