This document provides an agenda and information for a poetry workshop. The agenda includes discussions of poetic forms like sestinas and villanelles. It also includes a lecture on free verse poetry and a guided writing exercise for students to write free verse poems. The document defines various poetic terms and provides examples of poems in different forms. It offers guidance on writing free verse poetry without strict meter or rhyme, including the use of imagery, formatting, repetition and other techniques. It concludes with assigning students a poetry project and homework.

2. AGENDA
• Discussion: Sestina/Villanelle
• Terms 24- 30
• Lecture: Free Verse
• Guided Writing: Free Verse
• Project #1

3. THE REVIEW
18.English Sonnet
19.Italian Sonnet
20.Stanza
21.Couplet
22.Quatrain
23.Octave
24.Sestet

4. THE VILLANELLE
THE SESTINA
DISCUSSION SUBJECT: 10 MINUTES
Share your work. Identify both
form and general conventions.

5. TERMS
24 Sestina
A poem of thirty-nine lines and written in iambic
pentameter. Its six-line stanzas repeat in an intricate and
prescribed order the final word in each of the first six lines.
After the sixth stanza, there is a three-line envoi, which uses
the six repeating words, two per line.
25 Villanelle
A nineteen-line lyric poem that relies heavily on repetition.
The first and third lines alternate throughout the poem,
which is structured in six stanzas --five tercets and a
concluding quatrain. Examples include Bishop's "One Art,"
Roethke's "The Waking," and Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle
into That Good Night."

6. 26. Tercet
A three-line stanza, as the stanzas in Frost's "Acquainted With
the Night" and Shelley's "Ode to the West Wind." The three-line
stanzas or sections that together constitute the sestet of a
Petrarchan or Italian sonnet.
27. Elision
The omission of an unstressed vowel or syllable to preserve the
meter of a line of poetry. Alexander uses elision in "Sound and
Sense": "Flies o'er th' unbending corn...."
28. Personification
The endowment of inanimate objects or abstract concepts
with animate or living qualities. An example: "The yellow
leaves flaunted their color gaily in the breeze." Wordsworth's "I
wandered lonely as a cloud" includes personification.

7. 29. Free verse (Open form)
Poetry without a regular pattern of meter or rhyme. The verse is "free" in not
being bound by earlier poetic conventions requiring poems to adhere to an
explicit and identifiable meter and rhyme scheme in a form such as the
sonnet or ballad. Modern and contemporary poets of the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries often employ free verse. Williams's "This Is Just to Say" is
one of many examples.
30. Image
A concrete representation of a sense impression, a feeling, or an idea.
Imagery refers to the pattern of related details in a work. In some works one
image predominates either by recurring throughout the work or by
appearing at a critical point in the plot. Often writers use multiple images
throughout a work to suggest states of feeling and to convey implications of
thought and action. Some modern poets, such as Ezra Pound and William
Carlos Williams, write poems that lack discursive explanation entirely and
include only images. Among the most famous examples is Pound's poem "In
a Station of the Metro":
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.

8. • FREE VERSE
Writing Free Verse
LECTURE SUBJECT

9. In A Station Of The Metro
by Ezra Pound
The apparition of these faces in the
crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Title is really a
line in the poem
No extra words
Imagery/
metaphor
List of the "don'ts" that Pound laid down in his 1913 essay on
imagism:
"Use no superfluous word,"
"Go in fear of abstractions,"
"Don't be 'viewy.'"

10. The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
What conventions
make this a poem
rather than prose?

11. The Snow Man
by Wallace Stevens
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Metaphor: A snow man for
a man in the snow
Assonance: one must:
metaphor/ mind of winter
Imagery
imagery
Assonance: distant glitter
Any misery in
Sound/wind
Sound
Sound/land
Same Wind
Same place
Listener/listens
Nothing x3

12. La Figlia Che Piange (The Weeping Girl)
by T. S. Eliot
Stand on the highest pavement of the stair —
Lean on a garden urn —
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair —
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise —
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.
So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve,
So he would have left
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,
As the mind deserts the body it has used.
I should find
Some way incomparably light and deft,
Some way we both should understand,
Simple and faithless as a smile and a shake of the hand.
What
conventions
make this a
poem rather
than prose?

13. La Figlia Che Piange (The Weeping Girl)
by T. S. Eliot
Stand on the highest pavement of the stair —
Lean on a garden urn —
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair —
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise —
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.
So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve,
So he would have left
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,
As the mind deserts the body it has used.
I should find
Some way incomparably light and deft,
Some way we both should understand,
Simple and faithless as a smile and a shake of the hand.
A
B
A
C
B
D
A repetition of line
three
A repetition of So I
would have had
A
B
C Repetition of As
D
E
B Rep of Some way
F couplet
F simile

14. Free verse, despite the seeming lack of
restrictions, should be as carefully fashioned
as any formal poem. It is as difficult to write
a good free verse poem as one in a
traditional form because you must not only
invent your own conventions but fulfill them
as well.

15. There is no standard, of course, for how long
a free verse poem line should be. Usually a
line will have at least three beats to it if it's to
have any substance to it. A single word as
an entire line is to be used sparingly as it
gives one word inordinate emphasis.

16. Even though the lines of a free verse poem don't have
to have a fixed meter, they should still have cadences
and patterns and repetitions of sounds, which give the
words their music. These rhythms help carry the reader
along or slow the reader down. Natural stresses of the
language will call attention to certain words. In a free
verse poem, you have the freedom to place these
words so they draw extra attention to create tension.
Likewise, while lines of rhymed poetry are more regularly
end stopped, the syntax of free verse allows for
enjambment. These pauses are part of the meter and
rhythm of the line.

17. A big challenge is avoiding the abstract and focusing on
the concrete to create images.
An abstraction is anything that is not tangible, a noun that
does not bring a picture to mind. Love, hate, grief, justice,
and time are all abstractions. Images are nouns that are
universally seen similarly in our minds. Tables, canyons and
trees are all images. People imagine them in similar ways.
Concrete images give us the ability to understand another
viewpoint.
Abstractions are often unavoidable, and that’s where
metaphor, simile, and personification come in handy. You
can use this figurative language to help connect an
abstraction with an image: My love is a rose

18. Formatting a poem can make an essential difference in rhythm and
meaning. Short lines, emphasis, and indentations create pauses in
the reader’s mind. Try indenting to break up ideas or isolate lines you
see as important. Experiment with formatting; use it to change
rhythm and speed.
Formatting also includes italicization, bolding, quotation marks, and
parentheses. These devices can be used to identify different voices.
Use italics to suggest a whisper and bold as a shout or clear-ringing
voice. Parentheses will likely be read as an aside. Quotation marks
emphasize words. Use these techniques to make the voices more
exciting and dynamic.

19. Grammatical Errors: Do not disregard common grammatical rules
unless there is substantial need for it. Use punctuation that fits the
purpose: capitalize and use correct spelling.
Clichés: Don’t write something you’ve heard. Analyze images and
ideas for originality. Abstractions are far more overused than images,
so think of something fresh and new to describe.
Alliteration: Forms of alliteration can make a poem taste good. Just
don’t overdo it. Assonance is less noticeable but often more effective
than consonance or alliteration.
Repetition: Repetition works sometimes, but it is often overused. Don’t
repeat the same exact lines just to take up space. Repetition in
formatting and theme is often necessary and very effective.

20. Know what you are writing about. If you can’t
completely dissect your poem and tell a reader what
every single word’s purpose is, then you can improve
your verse. Be aware of how every symbol and
metaphor complements your poem as you write it.
Later you can edit it, but if there isn’t a strong base
there will not be a strong finished piece.
The more you read and write poetry, the better you’ll
read and write poetry.

21. GUIDED WRITING

22. This Is Just To Say
by William Carlos
Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
Think about something that you did or
said to someone that you regret.
Write a poem of apology, comprising
three to five four-line stanzas, with the
same number of stressed syllables in
each line.
Avoid sentimentality. Rely on images,
rhythm, and structure to convey your
regret.

23. Ratatouille A spicy
French stew.
Susquehanna A
river in
Pennsylvania.
Umbrella
Protection from
sun or rain.
Penumbra A half-
shadow.
Opulent Lush,
luxuriant.
Mellifluous Sweet
sounding.
Lithe
Slender
and
flexible.
Languor
Listlessness,
inactivity.
Ingénue A naïve
young woman.
Gossamer
The finest
piece of
thread, a
spider's silk
Furtive Shifty,
sneaky.
Flowers, panther, cinnamon, sunset, rain, cookies
Ephemeral Short-
lived.
Dalliance A brief
love affair.
Bungalow A small,
cozy cottage.
Fetching
Pretty
isolate
justify
deepen
define
Epiphany A sudden
revelation.
Harbinger
Messenger
with news of
the future
Bucolic In a lovely rural setting
resist
resonate Propinquity An
inclination. Brood
To think alone..
envision
evaluate
willowy
drab
mundane
tarnished
desolate
Make a list of ten
words. Incorporate
these words into a
poem made up of
three stanzas
composed of five
lines each.

24. "When you have nothing to say, say
nothing."
- Charles Caleb Colto
"The only thing
necessary for the
triumph of evil is
for good men to
do nothing."
-Edmunde Burke
"The first rule of Fight Club is--
you do not talk about Fight
Club."
(Brad Pitt as Tyler Durden,
Fight Club)The three grand
essentials of
happiness are:
something to do,
someone to love,
and something to
hope for. --
Alexander
Chalmers
Choose an aphorism and
write a poem that
incorporates the words or
meaning into it.

25. Make a list of
things you're
grateful for.
Beneath each
item, free-
associate a list of
objects. Pick ten
from your lists of
objects and use
them to write a
poem.
Write a poem that
addresses a past or
future version of
yourself. Write in the
second-person
singular. Reassure a
younger self, send
warnings to a future
self, or ask questions to
which you don’t know
the answers.

26. POETRY: PROJECT #1: 50 POINTS
 For this project, choose two or three different kinds
of poems from your collection to submit for a grade.
For example, you might submit a Haiku, Free Verse,
and a Sonnet. If you are submitting longer poems,
you might submit only two: for example, a Sestina
and a Villanelle or your Blank Verse and a Sonnet.
 Writer’s Feedback Workshop: Class 6
 Final project due Friday, week 4, before noon.
Submit through Kaizena.

27. HOMEWORK
• Post # 5: Free Verse
• Choose two or three different-style
poems to revise for project 1.
• Bring copies of your proposed
project for each member of your
group to our next class meeting.
• Study Terms: 1-30: Test at our next
meeting