Introduction to Poetry

This course is designed to build your knowledge and enjoyment of English poetry, and encourage you to find your own poetic voice. We will study a range of poems, from medieval times to the present, and learn about the different forms of verse: sonnet, sestina, villanelle, blank verse, rhyming couplets, and more! Classes are discussion-based, as we share our responses to poems and consider different ways of reading, to appreciate a writer’s meaning and technique. By the end of the course, you should be able to pick up any anthology of English verse with confidence and read it with pleasure! There will be opportunities to write your own poems in response to what we read, and share them with the group. This course will use The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms as a course book, with some supplementary material. SESSION TIMES TUESDAYS – 10.30-12 Sept 15, 22, 29 Oct 6, 13, 20 Nov 3, 10, 17, 24 Dec 1, 8 Jan 12, 19,26 Feb 2, 9, 16