WR 242: Creative Writing - Poetry

Outcomes for this course require working through multiple drafts of several pieces of writing with time to separate the acts of writing and revising; in addition, the reading outcomes require time to read, reread, reflect, respond, interpret, analyze, and evaluate.

Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:

• Continue to read a wide range of established poets, particularly American and contemporary poets, to learn techniques demonstrated in their work.
• Employ the various techniques and elements of poetry such as imagery, metaphor, line breaks, alliteration, assonance, and meter to write poems.
• Use self-reflection and techniques for employing the imagination to generate new poems and then to revise the poems, using techniques for “re-entering” or “re-seeing” a piece of writing.
• Recognize the value and purpose and power of poetry and how it gives shape to human experience.
• Read poems by a wide variety of established poets and be able to read them well. Students may give brief presentations on the poetry of established poets.
• Recognize the function of basic elements of poetry such as imagery, metaphor, line breaks, meter, lyric forms, alliteration and assonance, rhyme.
• Demonstrate ability at using images in writing their poems
• Demonstrate ability at using the concept of “the line” in writing their poems
• Use their understanding of the elements of poetry to critique others' poems constructively and receive and use workshop criticism of their own poems.
• Use techniques for employing the imagination to generate poems.
• Develop an awareness of the oral nature of poetry.
• Understand that poetry is a plastic art and emerges through a process which includes revision: “the art is in the revision” (Picasso).
• Use techniques for “re-entering” or “re-seeing” a poem they’ve written
• Develop a sense of audience.
• Prepare and submit manuscripts for publication or performance.