One Day Workshops
Thursday: Short-line Verse with Timothy Murphy
We will touch briefly on dimeter, which is so very difficult, and spend most of our
time on trimeter, examining Hardy, Yeats, Frost and Wilbur (to a smaller extent, me.)
We shall also examine the use of short lines in nonce, heterometrical stanzas, concentrating
on Wilbur's Hamlen Brook. We'll also look at a handful of poems by participants. Please
send one poem to timmurphyis@gmail.com.
Friday: The Free Verse Line with Dana Gioia
Dana Gioia will present the different traditions and techniques of free verse in English.
The class will provide examples and advice for poets seeking to master these powerful
but often confusing poetic forms.
Saturday: Rhyme as Rorschach with Alfred Corn
In this workshop we will be looking at rhyme not solely as a pleasure for the ear
but as a divining rod to discover meanings. Like the Rorschach test in experimental
psychology, the chance coincidences of rhyme can suggest semantic connections and
avenues for composition that might not otherwise have occurred to the writer. We will
be looking at successful uses of rhyme and then be doing in-class writing exercises.
Participants are expected to have some previous experience using rhyme.