ENGH 391: Forms of Poetry

ENGH 391-001: Forms of Poetry
(Fall 2015)

09:00 AM to 10:15 AM MW

Planetary Hall 122

Section Information for Fall 2015

This is a hands-on course in the building of poems from words, lines, and sentences from images and music.  We will investigate several of the many diverse poetic forms available to us, each with its own conventions and consequences, challenges and delights.  Every week we will explore specific verse, stanzaic, or modal form (e.g. elegy, ode, urban pastoral...)  We will work in and around various meters (accentual, syllabic, and accentual syllabic), in and with rhyme and other musical elements, as well as with the complexities of what we call free verse.

In the end, I hope you will feel more confident of your craft, more willing both to rely on and to resist formal orders.  You will be more aware of your choices because you'll know more about the powers of repetition and variation, the frictions and complicities of sentence and line, the dynamic equilibrium at and in resolution.  Forms is a foundation course and a gateway drug.  Expect weekly exercises, a midterm exam and a final project.

Course Information from the University Catalog

Credits: 3

Intensive study of and practice in formal elements of poetry through analyzing models and weekly writing assignments. Depending upon specific instructor, can cover rhyme, meter, rhythm, lineation, stanza pattern, traditional and experimental forms, free verse and open-form composition, lyric, narrative, and dramatic modes. Offered by English. Limited to three attempts.
Recommended Prerequisite: ENGH 396.
Schedule Type: Lecture
Grading:
This course is graded on the Undergraduate Regular scale.

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