Module Information

Week One:
Short introduction to module. First topic ‘Oral Traditions’. We will consider poetic narrative through the ballad form and will also explore traditions in syllabic poetry (Japanese, Indian and Welsh). We will look at the ways in which poetry enables sharing and keeping of cultural traditions through their oral and written forms. We will briefly revisit iambic meter and rhyme schemes used in ballads. Students will work in groups to discuss how they would approach writing a contemporary ballad – whether they will adhere to or veer away from the traditional form in certain ways. We will briefly look at the Welsh englyn, the Telugu naani and, in more depth, the development of haiku/senryu into the tanka and the communally written Renga. As in Japanese traditional writing practice, students will develop haiku or senryu into tanka.

Week Two:
An Introduction of concrete poems, considering form as a visual tool. We will discuss the ways in which form and subject are in dialogue when using form to suggest a visual shape, and consider whether content is undermined by the demands of the shape, and whether this matters in a poem of this kind. We will discuss the pros and cons of shaping texts using digital software. The students will choose a visual shape and attempt to write a poem that marries subject and shape.

Week Three:
Sonnets: Exploring Petrarchan and Shakespearian sonnets forms, considering the history of the forms and their contemporary use, and considering different ways of using the forms ourselves. In groups, the students will unpick and turn a traditional sonnet on its head, deciding what to keep and what to do away with, giving informed reasons for these decisions. This ‘adapted’ version will be used as a template to write their own sonnet on a specific subject.

Week Four:
Guest poet. A poet will come to the seminar to give a reading of their work, discuss their working practice and take part in a Q & A session. The students will be able to share their own experiences and to consider new working methods.

Week Five:
OuLiPo and Aleatoric (chance) poetry. We will look at different constrained writing methods which movements of poets have used to produce their work. We will be looking at some of the well-known OuLiPo techniques as well as aleatoric poems. Students will be asked to try out a selection of these constraints, including snowball poem and acrostics, and will discuss their experience of using such chance/constraints on their creativity.

Week Six:
Repetition as a device. We will explore the ways in which repetition is used in two traditional forms, the Villanelle and Pantoum, considering the role of the echo, pattern, and feeling of entrapment in conveying certain subject matter. Students will compare such techniques with those that use strict meter and rhyme.

Week Seven:
Found poems. This session will pivot around a discussion on the ways in which we are surrounded by textual material in all aspects of our lives, the usefulness of this when writing, and the effect of removing traditional, linear patterns to meaning. We will look at the Found Poetry Review, which shows potential ways to present found material through an on-line archive as well exploring ways of ‘collecting’ materials to write from. We will then embark on an excursion to collect textual material for our own poems.

Week Eight:
Collage and cut-up. This session will build on the work of the previous week by asking students to think about the effect of bringing different discourses together to produce a poem, and the ways in which seemingly disparate domains of language, syntax and tone can combine to produce a startling new piece of work. We will look at the techniques used to produce collage and cut-up poetry from the 1950s onwards the techniques used. As an exercise, students will work with their found material and also with a selection of other texts to produce new poems using different techniques.

Week Nine:
Digital poetry and media constructed poetry. From writing twitter and text poems to using Software and digital techniques, the students will explore methods of using media and digital techniques to produce poems, including using online randomisers. We will explore on-line archive of digital poetry and look at some multi-media projects. Students will discuss the implications of multi-media and interactive poetry – the pros and cons of single author work and collaborative work and the relationship between contemporary performance in the digital age and the poet.

Week Ten.
Students devise their own constraints. This is an opportunity for the students to review the material covered throughout the module and to create their own formal constraints to write a poem, supported by their tutor.