POET 45 W — The Rhythm Has Meaning: Poetry Workshop
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Jalen Eutsey
Date(s): Apr 16—Jun 4
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Thursdays
Class Meeting Time: 6:00—7:00 pm (PT)
Tuition: $825
Refund Deadline: Apr 18
Unit(s): 2
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Open
Quarter: Spring
Day: Thursdays
Duration: 8 weeks
Time: 6:00—7:00 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 16—Jun 4
Unit(s): 2
Tuition: $825
Refund Deadline: Apr 18
Instructor(s): Jalen Eutsey
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Open
Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.—T.S. Eliot
In this course, we’ll aim to write poems that do just that—works that communicate on a visceral level, revealing new layers of meaning with each reading. We’ll begin by exploring rhythm, in both formal and free verse, and by tuning our ears to the sonic qualities of language: rhyme, assonance, alliteration, and consonance. We’ll also study how fundamentals like imagery, diction, lineation, and sound shape a poem’s tone and voice. For inspiration, we’ll read poets such as Philip Larkin, John Ashbery, Li-Young Lee, Elizabeth Bishop, Terrance Hayes, Ross Gay, Dean Young, and Mary Ruefle. After each discussion, you’ll complete prompt-based writing exercises and submit original poems for written feedback from both your peers and instructor. By the end of the course, you’ll have a portfolio of new work that rewards multiple readings and a deeper understanding of poetic craft, particularly how rhythm influences interpretation.
In this course, we’ll aim to write poems that do just that—works that communicate on a visceral level, revealing new layers of meaning with each reading. We’ll begin by exploring rhythm, in both formal and free verse, and by tuning our ears to the sonic qualities of language: rhyme, assonance, alliteration, and consonance. We’ll also study how fundamentals like imagery, diction, lineation, and sound shape a poem’s tone and voice. For inspiration, we’ll read poets such as Philip Larkin, John Ashbery, Li-Young Lee, Elizabeth Bishop, Terrance Hayes, Ross Gay, Dean Young, and Mary Ruefle. After each discussion, you’ll complete prompt-based writing exercises and submit original poems for written feedback from both your peers and instructor. By the end of the course, you’ll have a portfolio of new work that rewards multiple readings and a deeper understanding of poetic craft, particularly how rhythm influences interpretation.
JALEN EUTSEY
Poet
Jalen Eutsey’s poems have appeared in Best New Poets 2022, The Yale Review, Poetry Northwest, Nashville Review, and elsewhere. He has taught creative writing at Johns Hopkins and Stanford and to young adults through the Writers in Baltimore Schools and Baltimore Youth Film Arts programs. He received an MFA in poetry from the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins and serves as a contributing editor for The Hopkins Review. He was a 2022–24 Stegner Fellow at Stanford. Textbooks for this course:
(Optional) Alfred Corn, The Poem's Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody (ISBN 978-1556592812)
(Required) James Longenbach, The Art of the Poetic Line (ISBN 978-1555974886)
(Required) James Longenbach, The Art of the Poetic Line (ISBN 978-1555974886)