Overview

Poetry is a twelve-week course, comprised of twelve lessons and three opportunities for you to gain written feedback on your writing from the course tutors. The course also includes various opportunities for you to try out a range of writing techniques and ideas.

Poetry focuses on both closed form and free verse poetry, inviting you to experiment with techniques for understanding and experimenting with a range of poetic devices. Each lesson includes a range of readings, a discussion of the techniques used by a range of poets, and opportunities for you to experiment with writing your own poems.

By the end of the course you will have developed a portfolio of poems in a range of forms and genres, and have gained a deeper understanding of the challenges and possibilities of a range of historical and contemporary poetic forms.

Prerequisites

You don't need to have any prior experience or knowledge to enrol in this course, although you may find it helpful to have a play around in our free online courses Playing with Poetry or even Playing with Prose in order to familiarise yourself with Olvar Wood onLine (OWL).

All of the courses in OWL are based on our philosophy that writers thrive through a mixed diet of reading, writing and thinking.

Content

This course is comprised of 12 lessons, each of which is designed to take you one week to complete.

After an initial, introductory lesson, we will focus on a different poet, poetry movement or form each week. The lessons will include historical information, material on the poetic forms or innovations of the poet, their approach to craft and the lessons we can learn, as poets, from studying their work and their approach.

As part of each lesson, you'll be encouraged to write and post poems for discussion, and to participate in discussions about poetry.

Feedback

There are several opportunities in each lesson for you to submit your writing for informal feedback from both other writers in the course, and the course tutors. Feedback from the course tutors on your posts to forums and so on will not be in-depth, but will be personal and timely. You will not receive feedback on all of your posts or comments in the course, though you can expect to receive frequent, personal comments most of the time.

There are three formal feedback opportunities during this course. These are opportunities for you to submit pieces of your own writing for feedback both from your peers in the course, and from the course mentor. This feedback will be in the form of written notes and will be focused on helping you identify the strengths and weaknesses in your writing, and on ways to move your writing forward. Feedback may include, where appropriate and relevant, advice about further reading, strategies for improving the work, potential markets for publication, etc.

Writing Task One: Due Lesson Four

• Your first submission for feedback and discussion with your peers, which consists of up to three closed form poems.

Writing Task Two: Due Week Eight

• Your second submission for feedback and discussion with your peers, which consists of another three poems – either revised versions of your initial submission, new poems, or a mixture of new and revised poems. Your second submission can include closed form and free verse poems.

Writing Task Three: Due Week Twelve

• Your second submission for feedback and discussion with your peers, which consists of yet another three poems – again, your submission can include revised versions of poems from one of your earlier submissions, new poems, or a mixture of new and revised poems. Your third submission can include closed form or free verse poems.

There is no marks-based assessment in this course. This is partly because we believe that a focus on grades – on getting a good-enough grade, on writing something to please your teacher or peers – can block you from exploring your writing in an open, exploratory and experimental way. It can get you all tied up in knots worrying about grades, when what you could be focused on is the experience of learning something new, taking risks, and having fun.

Resources

In order to gain the most out of this course you will be asked to engage with a range of material, including some poetry, fiction and non-fiction. All of the readings for this course are available through the online interface as downloadable PDFs, word documents or webpages.

The course tutors will also encourage you to read material outside the set readings, and will recommend works or authors in response to your interactions in the course.

How To Enrol

You can enrol in any course on OWL by going to the website, and clicking on the course title. You'll be guided through the process of creating a user profile and paying for your course (via Paypal).

If you'd prefer to have your user profile created for you (you can edit it later), and pay by either direct deposit or cheque, please contact us by email at admin@olvarwood.com.au