Dates: August 17 – October 4, 2023. (Registration closes August 16th)
Where: Our private course forum area, plus weekly meetings (August 23 – September 27) on Google Meet on Wednesdays at noon, EDT (New York time)
What makes a poem a poem? In the 2007 book The Art of the Poetic Line, poet James Longenbach ventured an answer: “More than meter, more than rhyme, more than images or alliteration or figurative language, line is what distinguishes our experience of poetry as poetry, rather than some other kind of writing.” Lines are indeed the first thing we notice as “different” when glancing at the page, and those who are new to poetry often have questions about lines, especially when facing non-rhyming poems. It may sound too obvious, but do an online search for “definitions of poetry” and you’ll get back answers that suggest that lines may not always be top of mind (and, as prose poems show, their necessity may be debatable).
This book is a wide-ranging look at how the line functions in English, examining canonical poets (Shakespeare, Milton, Robert Herrick), formal masters of the 20th century (W.B. Yeats, Marianne Moore, Donald Justice), and poets known for pushing the boundaries in various ways (Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Michael Palmer). It covers traditional meter, syllabic poetry, and poems from all stages of the history of free verse (Walt Whitman to C.D. Wright and other poets writing at the time the book was published). The last third of the book examines prose poetry. It’s a unique project: most other books on poetic form are heavily focused on meter and/or are longer and more scholarly. Longenbach, noted for his clarity as a critic, instead aims to be accessible to anyone with an interest in poetry (writers or readers), defining important terms as he goes. He simply wants to get us thinking about lines rather than proscribing a particular approach. Best of all, the book is short (only 120 smaller-than-standard pages).
If you’ve had poetry teachers who have given you a strong foundation in craft, you may find the book doesn’t add much; but if you haven’t, it will provide helpful grounding in what poets are doing when they make lines. In my opinion, the main weakness of the book is that the most recent examples don’t go beyond poems written by white Americans born before 1950.
In this course, we’ll read it together as a group. There will be six weekly discussion meetings taking place on Wednesdays on Google Meet, plus an “always-open” forum. For those who can’t make the call, there will be a structure for submitting questions and comments ahead of time, and a replay video along with a written summary of important points. We’ll take it slow, about 20 pages per week, to allow for everyone’s too-packed schedules. I’ll be adding ample reading and writing exercises (not in the book) to help deepen your understanding of the line and see how we can apply Longenbach’s discussion to our own work, as well as helpful additional context (such as short bios of the poets discussed focused on the most important things to know about them). The course is limited to 10 people in order to nurture an intimate, supportive group (you can see how many spots are left with the “in stock” notice in green at the top of this page).
After registering, look for your receipt, which will contain a note with a link to a PDF that will explain forum access and provide a pre-course assignment. Please contact me if you don’t receive it.
Dates: August 17 – October 4, 2023. (Registration closes August 16th)
Where: Our private course forum area, plus weekly meetings (August 23 – September 27) on Google Meet on Wednesdays at noon, EDT (New York time)
Cost: $50
Instructor: Meg Hartmann
What You’ll Need: A copy of the book, which you’ll want in time to read up to page 24 by the first meeting on August 23rd. Right now, Amazon has used copies for about $10 (including shipping). There is no official ebook available. Note that there’s a pre-course assignment you may want to get started on right away (for which you don’t need the book).
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