Poetry Workshop

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Assessment: a 1500-word essay on one aspect of the craft of poetry and a portfolio of 12 poems that have been previously submitted to the workshop (100%)

Fiction is a language art and a narrative form. Everything, however, is built out of the sentence. Not just a carrier of narrative, a sentence has to be its own story. It needs to be declarative and arresting. In other words, the sentence has to do everything. One of the best training grounds for the novelist on the level of the sentence is a poetry workshop. Poetry is a concentration of language, where not a single word can be wasted. Poetry also has rhythm and musicality. This poetry workshop will be useful to all students of fiction who want to improve their literary language skills and push the sentence to another level of expertise.

The module will give you the opportunity to enhance your skills through the study and practice of the techniques of the poet. We will combine close readings of canonical and contemporary poems with writing exercises and the process of the workshop to explore such weekly themes as: the impact of the image, the right words in the right order, the telling detail, clarity and consistency of character, the reach of connotation, the riches of understatement, catching and shifting the tone, writing with your ear and how words feel.

Through these themed topics, you will extend your understanding of how form and structure (including sound and rhythm) contribute to meaning; how metaphors and symbols grow out of images (and how to harness the power of figurative language); how 'writing off the subject' is often the best way in; how inference and innuendo can draw the reader in and how writing that addresses the senses invites the reader to make the experience his or her own.

The course will also include a visit to the National Gallery.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• compose poetry at a formal and experimental level
• demonstrate knowledge of various set forms
• evaluate your own work in a critical fashion
• apply your new skills to other modes of writing
• demonstrate a broad knowledge of published poetry.