Study Poetry - develop your ability to write poetry in a variety of styles.
Understand, critique and write poetry.- Study some work of classic poets.
- Produce and understand the many different types poetic writing
- A solid foundation course, exploring the different elements of poetry, and how to write them.
In bringing forth the poet inside
there is no need to stem the tide
This course has a style for me and you
From sonnets to odes and even haiku
Enrol today and find your flavour
Do your creative self a favour
Whatever you write has sound
People hear your words in their heads, and so the sounds you create can draw people's attention to your message. Poets use a range of musical and figurative devices to achieve their effects. Some of these effects relate to the rhythm and metre of the words. The study of rhythm, stress, and pitch in speech is called prosody. In poetry, the meter (or metre) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse.
The process by which we create a poem may be more important than the actual poem we create ...
Are we born with creativity?
... Or is it something that we can teach and develop?
In this course, we will encourage you to think about poetry and the ways in which you write. We will encourage you to think about language, and how you use it. The way you use language in poetry is obviously different to the way that you talk. When talking, just like writing a poem, you use a wide vocabulary, but when writing poetry we tend to use more descriptive and emotive language.
"Stay young by taking inspiration from the young in spirit who remained creatively active all their lives:
Goethe completing Faust at 80; Titian painting masterpieces at 98; Toscanini conducting at 85; Justice Holmes writing Supreme Court decisions at 90; Edison busy in his laboratory at 84; and Benjamin Franklin helping to frame the American Constitution at 80."
Author Unknown
Course Structure and Lesson Content
There are 9 lessons in this course:
Lesson 1. Introduction
- Nature and scope of poetry
- Brief description of the many different types of poetry
- Poetic devices (Rhyme, Assonance, Alliteration, Personification, Onomatopoeia, Imagery, Symbolism, Similie, Metaphor)
- Styles that tell a story (Monody, Ballad, Epitaph)
- Classic styles (Sonnet, Ode, Haiku)
- Monorhyme
- Trick poems (Limerick, Tongue Twister, Shape Poem, Palindrome)
- Styles classified according to arrangement of lines (Quatrain Style, Pantoum, Free Verse, Villanelle, Clerihew, Damante, Acrostic Style)
- Keeping a notebook
- Editing
- Terminology
Lesson 2. The Work of Other Poets
- Shakespeare
- Kendall
- Batejeman
- Angelou
- Shelley
- Dickinson
- Edgar Allen Poe
Lesson 3. Encouraging your creativity
- Exploring creativity
- Understanding your own creativity
Lesson 4. Developing different styles of poetry A (Some Classic Styles)
- Ode
- Sonnet
- Italian Sonnet
- Haiku
- Writing Haiku
Lesson 5. Developing different styles of poetry B (Following the Rules)
- Quatrain
- Pantoum
- Acrostic
- 21st Century Visual Poetry
Lesson 6. Developing different styles of poetry C (Poetry for Story Telling)
- Developing a story in poetry
- Planning a story
- Developing your voice
- Ambience
- Ending a story
- Epitaph style
- Monody
Lesson 7. Developing different styles of poetry D (Styles for Fun and Trickery)
- Funny poems
- Tongue twisters
- Limericks
Lesson 8. Getting your work published (how and where)
- Creative writing resources
- Other industry resources
- How and where to get published
- Self publishing
- Vanity publishing
Lesson 9. The next phase (how to continue to improve)
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
What are the Different Types of Poetry?
There are a number of standard styles or formats which poems tend to follow. These include:
Poems Focused on Telling a Story
Ballad Style
This is a poem that tells a story; which is constructed as a series of stanzas. Each stanza would typically be two or four lines and usually a refrain. ballads often tell stories that are derived from folk lore or historical events.
Monody
This is a poem that laments the death (or cessation of existence) of a person, animal or thing.
Epitaph Style
This is a short poem commemorating the life of a deceased person; usually on a tombstone.
Classic Styles
An Ode
This is a poem that praises or speaks highly of something, some place or someone.
Sonnet
A lyric poem of fourteen lines, which may follow any of a variety of different rhyming schemes. There are a variety of different types of sonnets (e.g. Italian sonnet, Shakespearean Sonnet).
Haiku
This is a Japanese style that is made up of standardized numbers of syllables in each line; but where lines do not rhyme. It is also written of focus on nature.
Haiku (also called nature or seasonal haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. Haiku is usually written in the present tense and focuses on nature (seasons).
Monorhyme
This is where all the lines have the same rhyme
Fun and Trick Poems
Tongue Twister
These involve lines that are difficult to pronounce when you speak the line fast.
Limerick Style
This is characterised by humour, rhyme and often nonsense.
Shape Poetry
Lines are written in a way that represents the shape of what you are writing about, for example, if your subject is a person, the poem is written so that the lines comprise the shape of a person.
Palindrome
This is a poem where lines read the same whether read from start to finish or (backwards) from finish to start.
Poems classified according to how lines are constructed and arranged
Quatrain Style
Comprises block of four lines of verse that adhere to a specific rhyming pattern.
Pantoum
A pantoum is a poem that joins together a series of quatrains.
Acrostic Style
This is poetry that is constructed in such a way that when the first letter of each line is taken, and those letters compiled together; they will spell one or more words. The words spelt are often the same as the title.
Free Verse
Free Verse is irregular. Content is free of traditional rules -free from fixed meter or rhyme.
Villanelle
A Villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of a very specific rhyming scheme (e.g. ide, idi, idi, idi, idee).
Is this course for you?
- Are you interested in writing poetry?
- Do you analyse or review poetry writing?
- Are you looking to improve your writing - do you want to improve your prose or develop particular styles of writing?
- Do you write for children? Do you want to understand better how to write in rhythmic or rhyming styles that will appeal to children?
- Do you want to write as a process of healing, reflection, or inner thought?
Then this course will help!
- Develop your understanding of the different styles and techniques of poetic writing.
- Develop your creative abilities.
- Learn to consider and draw inspiration from what is around you, from what you see and observe.
- Engage in a process to develop your individual style - channel your thoughts and views to develop your voice in written word.
Enrol today!
You can enrol on Poetry Writing at any time. The course is studied by distance learning. You study at your own pace with the support of our expert tutors.
If you have any questions or want to know more, get in touch with our specialist writing tutors today - they will be pleased to help you.