CRW 325P l Poetry Writing
Instructor: Reeves, R
Unique #: 34155
Semester: Fall 2019
Cross-lists: n/a
Prerequisites: One of the following: C L 315, E 303D (or 603B), (316K,) 316L, 316M, 316N, 316P, or T C 303D (or 603B).
Description: The Craft of Poetry and Poetry Writing –
This course will be structured in the manner of a poetry laboratory (what used to be called a workshop). However, this course will also be reading intensive in an effort to glean what we can, in terms of craft, from the masters. The class will focus upon writing, revising, and engaging the intellectual, aesthetic, and cultural landscape that is American poetry. We will begin with an examination of the line (long lines, short lines, medium-length lines) and weave our way through discussions of language, rhetorical and literary devices, camps / schools/ eras of poetry writing, the politics of the page, open and received forms, and even outlandish discussions of poetry’s efficacy, use, or contemporaneity. However, these discussions will not be only loose scraps of blab. We will experiment with these in our own work (i.e. the line, concrete language, imagery, received forms, etc.). The experimentations will take the form of assignments as well as your own endeavors to evoke and invoke these new muses. In this course, you will be responsible for writing poems that do not merely engage your own ideas of poetry, but instead, you will write poems that seek to further our understanding of poetry.
Texts: Zong!, M. NourbeSe Philip; Heavenly Questions, Gjertrud Schnackenberg.
Requirements & Grading: Oh, how we rue this portion of the program. The infamous grades—in a poetry writing class nevertheless—“how on earth will he do it,” ask the students. Here’s how:
- 20% of your grade comes from class participation. Class participation is contributing to the class conversation. In other words, if there is a discussion, you talk.
- 80% of your grade comes from the written assignment and will be broken down as such:
- 60% poems turned in to workshop / discuss. Throughout the semester, we will workshop your work (poems). You will know the week before that you will be workshopped and should prepare accordingly. I will “grade” your poems in terms of following the prescribed guidelines I set out for each assignment. For instance, if we are doing a unit on long lines and concrete language, and your poem has short lines and abstract language, then obviously this poem will not curry a high grade. Understand. Also, part of this grade is offering written feedback to your peers. You will turn in a minimum of one paragraph to each peer whose work we are workshopping each week. Just for your own general knowledge, a paragraph consists of a minimum of eight sentences. You can always turn in more. You will also turn in that same paragraph to me. I will discuss what feedback should sound like and seek to elucidate for the writer as we get closer to workshopping.
- 20% Final Portfolio. Your final portfolio will consist of a minimum of six poems (a total of 10 original pages of poetry). Not only should the portfolio contain all of the drafts in reverse chronological order (i.e. newest draft of the poem on top and so on), but you should also write a three- to five-page craft essay on how your work has developed and changed over the semester in regards to the readings, the critiques, and your general understanding of poetry. This will be due at the end of the semester. As we get closer to that time, I will go over this in more detail.