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Topic : What should be covered in a poetry workshop? I may take on the task of leading a one session (2 hour maximum) workshop on poetry. What would be the most important aspects that should be covered - selfpublishingguru.com

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I may take on the task of leading a one session (2 hour maximum) workshop on poetry. What would be the most important aspects that should be covered in such a workshop? I would assume that most folks going to a workshop like this would be beginner-intermediate level.


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I have attended several (and run a few) poetry workshops. They were all about writing poetry -- not talking about writing poetry, not discussing approaches, but actually writing poetry. None of the things mentioned by Lauren Ipsum were mentioned unless they pertained to what had been written by someone in the group.

It does depend on your audience and what they expect. Most of the workshops I have attended were for intermediate to expert writers. The workshops I have conducted have been for beginners and experts. I largely took what I had tried in the workshops I attended and used it with the participants in my sessions.


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The kinds of poetry: blank verse, free verse, structured
(limericks/sonnets/haiku etc.)
Rhyme and meter: when they matter, when they don't, when to violate, when Mr. Pritchard should be told to suck pipe
Sounds: beginning/ending, alliteration, repetition, opening/closing
and rising/falling vowels, consonants, how syllables create or
interrupt flow and rhythm
Puns, double entendres, and other wordplay
My poetry teacher always talked about paring away: remove as much as
you can, distill as much as you can, so that every word is meaningful
and no words are extra.
Shakespeare, because you can't talk about poetry without talking
about the Bard

More advanced:

Enjambments: how to use them and violate them for effect and meaning
How to use extra white space, extra returns, and oddball formatting
for effect and meaning


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