CRWR 224 - Introduction to Poetry

Introduction to Poetry Workshop
This is an introduction to writing and workshopping poems. Students will engage with weekly writing exercises and in-depth class discussion while reading a wide range of published works to develop critical skills and creative strategies beneficial to a sustainable writing practice. Emphasis will be placed on encouraging and reviewing student work within a workshop format.

First Books, Second Books
In this course, we will read both the first and second collections of poetry by 3-5 poets (Jake Skeets, Dora Malech, Donika Kelly, Eugenia Leigh, and Roger Reeves) who have published in the 21st century as we consider how poets construct speakers, employ lyric approaches, and trouble the distinction between the personal and political. Students will be expected to write 6-10 new poems.

Intro Poetry: Forms & the Lyric
In this course, we will study poetic tradition and forms, and consider questions of literary culture in the context of English-language, multi-lingual, and translated poems across time, with particular emphasis on the texts of contemporary poets and contemporary translation. We will learn about the cultural construction of poetic forms, from encoded oral tradition to poems of survivance and resistance. Students will be expected to write and revise a portfolio of 8-12 pages over the course of the semester.

Inside Matters: Writing Home and Relation
In this course, we will consider the representational powers and complexity of familial relations and domestic spaces, community and filial roles, queer and alternative family structures including chosen family, and the inhabitation and reclamation of public and private lives in the context of contemporary lyric poetry. Students will be expected to write 10-16 new poems over the course of the semester.

Unit(s): 1
Group Distribution Requirement(s): Distribution Group I
Prerequisite(s): A writing sample of three to five pages of poems and instructor approval.
Instructional Method: Conference
Grading Mode: Letter grading (A-F)
Notes: Enrollment limited to 15. Not all topics offered every year. Review schedule of classes for availability.
Group Distribution Learning Outcome(s):

Understand how arguments can be made, visions presented, or feelings or ideas conveyed through language or other modes of expression (symbols, movement, images, sounds, etc.).
Analyze and interpret texts, whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts.
Evaluate arguments made in or about texts (whether literary or philosophical, in English or a foreign language, or works of the visual or performing arts).