Creative Writing: Freefall: Writing Contemporary Poetry

Free verse or vers-libre, isn’t quite as free as the absence of rhyme and a strict metre might imply. We will discuss how writers such as Eliot, Pound, and later writers have influenced how lines are written and stressed. On this course we will explore:

How the ghosts of metre and rhyme may exist in free verse, and how to achieve this

How rhythm is generated within free verse through sonic devices.

How rhythms of conversational speech are related to the rhythm of free verse, and how this produces a form of elevated speech.

The course will explore one technique each week and concentrate on workshopping this via the development of a subject during each session. These sessions are built from simple inspiration tasks, discussion and experimentation with ideas and languages, and will enable students to develop writing within each session, along with honing their critical skills as an editor of their poems. Each workshop will be conducted in a mutually supportive atmosphere, in which students will be confident to express their thoughts, imaginations and emotions.

Advice will be given regarding how to edit one’s work and prepare it for submission to magazines or small presses. Come and enjoy writing in a supportive atmosphere.