LITR 3731 Creative Writing
Lecture Notes

2nd class meeting, 1st on poetry

preview schedule

rush to midterm = poetry presentation & revision account

poetry presenters are set

business, presentations

when we begin poetry presentations-discussions, move tables into rectangle / circle 

revised syllabus + presentation schedule

handouts

LITR 3731 homepage

Attitude toward presentations

No presentation is "perfect"--each is its own special moment or cooperative invention

But neither do we go free-form--have to make sure some things get done

see p. 5 of syllabus for presentation format

Question for now:

What are you already learning about writing poetry? Or creative writing in general?

What kinds of conflicts does this learning create in you?

p. 50 honesty

but honesty doesn't necessarily mean "what you've always thought"

honesty + ingenuity, fresh honesty

Three Genres

ch. 7 (pp. 94-104): "From Lines to Stanzas"

ch. 8 (pp. 105-116): "Free-Verse Patterns"

Among most interesting chapters in the book. How is free verse still poetry instead of just prose-in-broken-lines?

ch. 9 (pp. 117-127): "Internal Order"

How subject matter can organize the poem

Poetry a sensory / intellectual / emotional experience

Two senses prevail:

1. sight--"the mind's eye"; imagination / intellect

2. sound--the poem's rhythm, tone

Next week’s assignment:

two workshops

This week, mostly just reviewing standard process

next week more student input—pauses, reviews, so think about what you’re seeing and what you’d like to see

inevitable problem: a few dependable students dominate discussion

if they can pause, some shier students sometimes come forward (but not dependable)

 Lecture / discussion on reading assignment

Reading highlight assignment on p. 7

After Jeff's reading highlight, other students welcome to pitch in comments or highlights from reading assignment.

shock of college-level learning: expect some final answers, get more talk

taught by professional scholars who quickly discover how much there is to know and how little a single human mind and life can manage

serious student changes purpose:

Instead of going to college to get the answers, you learn to ask questions and keep learning

Never finish, but OK--not individual mastery

but helping system of learning, possibility of self-correcting civilization

never perfect, but if it breaks down everything’s worse

Teachers' job not to “teach the rules” (though testing / accountability always enforce)

English teachers, literary people describe—if you try to enforce, the cool and creative students will rebel, and the dull students who might benefit from rules aren't listening anyway

11 rules > conventions [or customs]

Textbook: different terms

7 simple versus sophisticated poetry

Mass-market

3 images > similes, metaphors, and symbols

7 making language suggest more than literal meaning

57 images as concrete nouns (explain “concrete”) > appealing to senses

Opposite: abstraction

> translate into sight and sound

58 a fully developed image

Sound 

Sound of words (1)

Rhythm

Rhyme (both mnemonic, used more before writing)

Poetry is never far from voice (4)

Poetry readings (2)

7 simple versus sophisticated poetry

Mass-market

Unvaried metrical lines

8 honest craft that requires practice

9 nothing new and insightful

11 Pound mutes both rhymes and meter

11 rules > conventions

Ch 3 Sources: Where Poems Come From

45 personal experience

A sudden leap, a connection

46 rooted in specific place, not abstraction

48 what ought to feel x true emotions

49 ambivalence

50 consider mixed feelings, and be honest about them

p. 50 honesty

but honesty doesn't necessarily mean "what you've always thought"

honesty + ingenuity, fresh honesty

Every evil a secret appeal

51 have fun with language

52-3

Impenetrable haze Poem—nothing hangs together, no two people can agree, “It means whatever you want it to mean”

54-6 Six Ways to Jump-Start a New Poem

1. Other poets

2. journal

3. senses—sight, sound, others

4. vivid experiences (shame, fright, mix of admiration and resentment)

5. friends and relations

6. start writing

Ch. 4 Images: The Essential element

57 images as concrete nouns (explain “concrete”)

Opposite: abstraction

> translate into sight and sound

58 a fully developed image

58-9 strong nouns, x-adjectives

59 images > figures of speech

60 simile, metaphor—both comparisons

60 examples

62-3 other figures of speech

63 cliché as dying metaphor

65 image as symbol, greater range of meaning

67 public symbol

68- image clusters (extended metaphor)

Ch. 5 The Sound of Words

p. 73

1. identical or similar beginning sounds

2. sounds within two or more words

3 rhyme

(implies image development)

72-73 nonrhyming devices of sound

74-5 Rhymes, true, slant (78), eye / sight

80 sound and sense are fused

Ch. 6 traditional rhythms

Reading assignment in 2 weeks

Three Genres

ch. 7 (pp. 94-104): "From Lines to Stanzas"

ch. 8 (pp. 105-116): "Free-Verse Patterns"

Among most interesting chapters in the book. How is free verse still poetry instead of just prose-in-broken-lines?

ch. 9 (pp. 117-127): "Internal Order"

How subject matter can organize the poem

Name: __________________

LITR 3731 Quiz 1 on reading assignments for Three Genres, chs. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6

Briefly answer at least five of the following seven questions. You may answer them all as insurance. Incomplete sentences are acceptable.

1. What styles or messages does our book associate with “mass-market poetry?”

2. Our textbook lists “seven deadly sins of poetry” (pp. 52-4). Summarize one or more.

3. The textbook also suggests “Six ways to jump-start a new poem” (pp. 54-6). Summarize one or more.

 4. You could probably define or describe “Images” without having read the textbook, but what new ideas or terms did your reading give you relative to imagery, metaphors, clichés, similes, figures of speech, symbol, etc.?

 5. What are “image clusters?”

 6. What is meant by “muting rhyme,” why is it desirable, and how is it achieved?

 7. What attitude is encouraged toward rhythm or meter? What are the upsides or downsides of too strict or too loose a meter?