ENGL 281
Introductory Workshop in Poetry Spring 2025 (also offered Fall 2024)
Division I

Poetry is a capacious genre, and notoriously difficult to define. Emily Dickinson wrote of it this way: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?” In this introductory workshop, we will develop an expansive definition of poetry and a facility with its many strategies. We’ll read broadly in canonical and contemporary poetry and will engage in various exercises, improvisations, and collaborations. You will write your own poems, as well as brief reflection papers. You will give thoughtful feedback on one others’ poems, and revise your own work as part of a final portfolio.