Module: CWR5001-20 Form and Listening in Poetry

Level: 5

Credit Value: 20

Module Tutor: Tim Liardet

Module Tutor Contact Details: t.liardet@bathspa.ac.uk

1. Brief description and aims of module:

In this module you will be encouraged to explore two important poetry issues: firstly, what forms are available to a poet wishing to expand his/her poetics; and secondly, who is it that is being addressed when a poem is written?

Each student will be expected to tackle the traditional forms available: sonnet, villanelle, sestina, quatrain, tercet, tirza rima, blank verse, free verse, and so forth. The object of this is to show you how form will assist in the control and focusing of poems. At the same time, having studied form, every student will be actively encouraged to subvert the form as much as possible: to make a form his/her own. The final assessment will certainly take account of how successful – how creative - such subversion is.

All students will, at the same time, be encouraged to ask themselves who they imagine is listening to their poem. Who is the poetic ‘You’ so often used? Establishing a dialogue with poetry both in the past, present and the future this issue will be looked at in depth. In extenuation, you will be encouraged to answer the question: how do we ensure the reader continues to listen?

With regard to both strains of this course reading will continue to be the key, and, to support both strains, you will be expected to attend The Bath Spa Stand Up Poetry Series.

2. Outline syllabus:

Study Focus One: Why form? What are its advantages? What Challenges?

Study Focus Two: What is meant by the subversion of form? What is meant by the contemporising of form? How do you make a form your own? How can form sharpen writing?

Study Focus Three: How to read / write a sonnet

Study Focus Four: How to read / write a villanelle

Study Focus Five: How to read / write quatrain, tercets,

Study Focus Six: How to read / write blank verse.

Study Focus Seven: What is Free verse? What is blank verse? Why have these forms come to prevail in contemporary poetry?

Study Focus Eight: Who is Listening? How to imagine a listener?

Study Focus Nine: Is there such a thing as an ideal reader?

Study Focus Ten: The reader changes through time.

Focus Study Eleven: Having started writing in form, what happens if from now on if you abandon it?

3. Teaching and learning activities:

The workshop will be the fundamental learning vehicle of this module. You will be expected to bring at least one new poem – incorporating the lessons of your reading in the previous week – to each session. Each student in turn will be expected to deliver a short presentation on one particular issue from his/her reading which is currently influencing his/her work. Students will be expected to write two reviews of two poets appearing in the Bath Spa University Stand Up Poetry Series. Every week, the tutor will deliver a short treatment of a particular issue and this may help to frame self-study during the ensuing week.

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Creative Folder of Poems

• % Weighting: 50%

Assessment Item 2:

• Assessment Type: Course Work

• Description: Reading Paper (2500 words) to include a discussion of at least three poetic forms

• % Weighting: 50%