English 43B

Description

"There is no greater fallacy going than that art is expression" (Robert Frost)

This introductory workshop will ask: what is poetry if it is not (or not only) self-expression? We will write, workshop and revise our own poems and we will study a variety of poetry from a broader literary tradition with the goal of recognizing and evolving our implicit assumptions about what poetry is and can do. Students will be expected to participate exuberantly in workshop and discussion, to memorize and recite a poem, and to produce a poem a week, leading to a final chapbook of revised poems fronted by a brief statement of poetics. 

Interested students should enroll directly into this course. No application or writing sample is required.