57133 Writing Poetry

Handbook description

In this subject students write extensively and read widely in a variety of genres of contemporary and modern poetry. The subject is designed for students who, interested in writing, have a sustained interest in poetry or who, while not being poets themselves, wish to develop a working knowledge of recent and contemporary practices in poetry. The approach stresses the student's own creative practice and the exploration of genre and technique in the composition of poetry. The unit also introduces the work of a number of contemporary Australian and international poets as part of a field of creative and professional contexts in which poetry is written today. The unit is a workshop designed to encourage participants to enhance their skills as poets and also to develop a critical ability in editing and revising their own work and that of other writers in the class. At the same time, broad issues to do with the work of the contemporary poet, whether to do with specific aspects of creative practice, publishing, experimentation, or the presence of poetry in performance oriented or other non-literary formats, will feature in the workshop.

Subject objectives/outcomes

In this subject, students will:

1. produce a folio of poems
2. acquire skills to reflect critically on their writing
3. acquire skills to revise and re-draft work in progress
4. further their knowledge of contemporary and modern English language poetry and a range of poetries in translation
5. study and practise formal and technical elements of poetry making
6. reflect and engage actively with the creative and imaginative process in its traditional and contemporary settings.

Teaching and learning strategies

There will be a mix of workshopping activities to which all students are asked to bring newly composed work. This will be accompanied by in-class exercises and week to week assignments. Students are asked to read each others' work in a critical and advisory way, as well as to initiate their own program of reading in contemporary and past poetry. Students read extensively outside the class and are expected to keep up with the required reading week by week.

Content

The subject focuses on the consolidation of skills in writing poetry. Image-related forms of writing and sound and prosodic skills are treated with equal emphasis in the opening half of the subject. Issues to do with the definition of contemporaneity and contemporary form and technique are also stressed. Attention is paid to the long narrative poem as well as to experimental forms. As the subject progresses the focus shifts increasingly to each class member's own body of work.

Assessment

Assessment item 1: to present no fewer than five poems (written or significantly re-worked within the time-span of the class) at the end of the first part of the semester

Assessment item 2: To present a short folio (approximately between 8 to 10 poems) at the end of the semester

Assessment item 3: Brief presentation

Minimum requirements

Students are expected to read the subject outline to ensure they are familiar with the subject requirements. Since class discussion and participation in activities form an integral part of this subject, you are expected to attend, arrive punctually and actively participate in classes. If you experience difficulties meeting this requirement, please contact your lecturer. Students who have a reason for extended absence (e.g., illness) may be required to complete additional work to ensure they achieve the subject objectives.

Attendance is particularly important in this subject because it is based on a collaborative approach which involves essential workshopping and interchange of ideas. Students who attend fewer than ten classes are advised that their final work will not be assessed and that they are likely to fail the subject.

Indicative references

ed. Judith Beveridge, The Best Australian Poetry 2006, St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press 2006

eds., Brennan, Michael and Minter, Peter, Calyx: 30 Contemporary Australian Poets, Sydney: Paper Bark Press, 2000

ed., Cook, Jon, Poetry in Theory: An anthology 1900-2000, Malden, MA: Blackwells Publishers 2004

eds.,Cosman, Carol Keefe, Joan and Weaver, Kathleen, The Penguin Book of Women Poets, New York: Viking Press 1986

ed., Ellman, Richard and O'Clair, Robert and Ramazani, John, The Norton Anthology of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, third edition, New York: W.W.Norton and Co, 2003

Harrison, Martin, Wild Bees: New and Selected Poems, University of Western Australia Press, 2008

eds.,Mead, Phillip and Tranter, John, The Bloodaxe Book of Modern Australian Poetry, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Bloodaxe Books 1994 and later editions

ed., Kostelanetz, Richard, Text-Sound Texts, New York, William Morrow 1980

ed., Leonard, John, New Music: an Anthology of Contemporary Australian Poetry,Wollongong: Five Islands Press 2001

eds., Moramarco, F and Boston B.H. and Harrison, Martin and others, Poetry International: the Post-Colonial English Language Diaspora, San Diego: San Diego State University Press, 2003

ed., Murray, Les, The New Oxford Book of Australian Verse, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1986 and later editions

eds., Preminger, Alex and Brogan T.V.F., co-editors ; Warnke Frank J., Hardison O.B. , Jr., and Miner, Earl associate editors. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1993.

eds., Rasula, Jed and McAffery, Steve, Imagining Language: An anthology, Boston: MIT Press 1998

eds., Rothenberg, Jerome and Joris, Pierre, Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry (From Postwar to Millennium , Vols 1 and 2), Berkeley: University of California Press 1995 and 1998

ed., Rothenberg, Jerome, Technicians of the Sacred, A Range of Poetries from Africa, America, Asia and Oceania, New York: Doubleday 1968 and later editions

Websites (Australian and American)

Poetry International http://australia.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=15

Australian Literary Resources http://www.austlit.com/a/index.html

UbuWeb http://users.rcn.com/obo/ubu/

PennSound http://www.writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/