In this poetry workshop, we focus on the process of discovering one’s own lyric voice through imitating the patterns we hear, see, and intuit in the work of other poets. Class time will be devoted in part to the reading and critique of poems you compose each week in response to work by contemporary poets who serve as powerful models for imitation and discovery. Over the course of the semester, we will discuss a wide range of poets engaging us in dialogue with essential elements of the craft. Students will be encouraged to explore strategies that spur the development of an individual style: to experiment with syntax, diction, tone, and rhetorical structure; to project different personae; and to play with possibilities of the line as a measure of breath, rhythm, and thought.

Prerequisite: CRWR 134 or permission from the instructor.