Poetry Writing: From Form to Free Verse

Lamenting the turn away from formal verse, Robert Frost said that free verse poetry is like playing tennis without a net. In this course, we will learn from form how to build nets in free verse. Each week we will focus on discussing a particular form of poetry (sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, etc.), concluding with free verse-learning lessons about how poets use each form differently to construct tension and drama; and we will workshop newly generated poems. Students will learn the generative value of formal constraint, and learn how to incorporate those constraints in their writing practice.