The document provides an agenda for a poetry workshop that includes a discussion of sestinas and villanelles, defining poetic terms 24 through 30, a lecture on free verse poetry, and a guided writing exercise on free verse. It defines the terms sestina, villanelle, tercet, elision, personification, and free verse. It also provides examples of free verse poems by Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and T.S. Eliot to illustrate poetic techniques and conventions used in free verse. The document concludes with tips for writing free verse poetry, including the use of rhythm, imagery, formatting, and avoiding grammatical errors and clichés.

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

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

4. DISCUSSION SUBJECT: 10 MINUTES
THE VILLANELLE
THE SESTINA
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
LECTURE SUBJECT
Writing Free Verse

9. In A Station Of The Metro Title is really a
by Ezra Pound line in the poem
The apparition of these faces in the No extra words
crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough.
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 What conventions
make this a poem
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
rather than prose?
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.

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

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 — What
Fling them to the ground and turn
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes: conventions
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair. make this a
poem rather
So I would have had him leave,
So I would have had her stand and grieve, than prose?
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.

13. La Figlia Che Piange (The Weeping Girl)
by T. S. Eliot
Stand on the highest pavement of the stair — A
Lean on a garden urn — B
Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair — A
Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise — C
Fling them to the ground and turn B
With a fugitive resentment in your eyes: D
But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair. A repetition of line
three
So I would have had him leave, A repetition of So I
So I would have had her stand and grieve, would have had
So he would have left A
As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised, B
As the mind deserts the body it has used. C Repetition of As
I should find D
Some way incomparably light and deft, E
Some way we both should understand, B Rep of Some way
Simple and faithless as a smile and a shake of the hand. 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 Think about something that you did or
said to someone that you regret.
I have eaten
the plums Write a poem of apology, comprising
that were in three to five four-line stanzas, with the
the icebox same number of stressed syllables in
each line.
and which Avoid sentimentality. Rely on images,
you were probably rhythm, and structure to convey your
saving regret.
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

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

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

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

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