Poetry Writing Syllabus 5/17 – 5/21
Poetry Writing Workshop
Jane Belton
Syllabus May 2010
Monday 5/17
In Class: Workshop — Day III; begin reading and discussing poems in handout (“Natasha in a Mellow Mood” by Tim Seibles).
Assignment: Revise the piece you workshopped, incorporating feedback you received. Read and annotate assigned poems in handout: James Tate’s “The Lost Pilot”, William Carlos Williams’s “This is just to say”, and Adrienne Rich’s “Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev”. When annotating the poems, focus on the details that convey the “I” (or “we”) and “you” of the poem. What are the lines that help build a sense of character/identity, and the relationship between the speaker and the addressed? What is the perspective of the speaker? Close? Distant? Begin work on Exercise 10: Write a letter poem or direct address poem inspired by one of the assigned poems. You don’t need to write from your perspective, but you need to have a clear idea of who the “I” and “you” are in the poem. Consider who you want to address–a stranger, a fictional character, a historical figure, someone you know. Make a list before you start writing. Make sure to ground your poem in the specifics.
*For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (JULIE)
Tuesday 5/18
In Class: Discuss assigned poems; define “voice”; discuss how voice, character, and perspective can be communicated. Continue work on Exercise 10 based on discussion today.
Assignment: 1) Revise Exercise 10, as necessary (you will turn this exercise in on Wednesday). 2) Complete Exercise 11: Find a news article of interest to you. Write a poem from the perspective of someone in the article, or a character related to the event in some way. Start by making a list of different voices you could write from. If you pick a dramatic car accident, for example, there are the direct voices of the victims or those responsible for the accident, but also witnesses, the police or EMT’s who arrive on the scene, relatives of someone involved, and so on, each leading to a different poem. When reading and annotating the assigned poems, and well as writing yours, think about how to step into the life of another person and speak with their voice.
*For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (ZOE)
Wednesday 5/19
In Class: Collect Exercise 10. Focused revision work on Exercise 11
Assignment: 1) Continue revising Exercise 11 to turn in on Friday. 2) Bring in 8 copies of the next poem you want to workshop to class on Friday.
*For first five minutes of class on Friday: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (JANE)
Thursday 5/20 – No Class
Friday 5/21
In Class: Exercise 11 due. Workshop Day 1
Assignment: 1) Work on revising your poem according to feedback. 2) Read and annotate poems for workshop
3) Complete Exercise # 12: Select one of your outside reading poems to respond to in a poem of your own creation. You might write to the poem itself or to the poet, but you must write from the voice/perspective of someone different from you–an archaeologist, a small child, the poet’s neighbor, a friend, a loved one, a dying man/woman, someone desperately searching for answers, etc. Choose a perspective that interests you most and go with it. Attach a copy of the poem you are responding to onto your draft. Below the exercise, respond to the following questions in a 1 page freewrite: After completing this “response poem,” what do you see now in the published poem that you hadn’t seen before? In other words, did you learn anything about the poem/poet (or how the poem was crafted) while writing your own poem-response? What did you want to explore in your poem-response?