3451 - Poetic Structures: The Poet at Work
Course Description
ONLINE: From Petrarch through Shakespeare up to Ellen Bass, poets have written to established structures. On what structure do poets choose to hang their words? Is one structure more effective than another? In this course we will explore these questions as exemplified in poems by Petrarch, Shakespeare, Spenser, John Donne, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Wordsworth, Gwendolyn Brooks, Stevie Smith, Elizabeth Bishop, Countee Cullen, Auden, Robert Frost, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Claude McKay, Richard Wilbur, Mary Oliver and Ellen Bass. We will examine poetic structures: the ballad, Elizabethan sonnet, Italian sonnet, Spenserian sonnet, villanelle, ode, elegy, blank verse and free verse. Recognition of these structures brings us into the crafting process of poetry, thereby heightening our awareness of the poet at work. Students are asked to read three to six poems before each meeting. All poems will be on the course website. Classes consist of lecture, visual presentation and discussion. | Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 15.