In this introductory course on poetry writing, students will learn the fundamentals of writing poetry through its relationship to place.
Whether we are writing about places we call home, or places that we have just arrived at or left, whether we are exploring our historical engagement with migration or our relationship to the natural world, poetry allows us to commemorate, document, and interrogate these spaces, where we discover and transform ourselves.
In this course, we will explore the relationship between critical reading and creative writing. Students will read and analyse poems about place, but more importantly they will learn the fundamental elements of poetic craft: imagery, sound, lineation, and poetic tension, through both readings and writing poems. Through a series of writing activities and workshop , they will receive feedback on their work and develop a critical vocabulary of craft. The course focuses both on the critical reading and creative writing of poetry, and will culminate in a final portfolio of poems.