The Forms of Modern Poetry

Module code: EN3071

Module co-ordinator: Nick Everett

This module offers an introduction to the principal forms and metres of poetry in English and a survey of some of the diverse uses of form in twentieth-century American, British, and Irish poetry. The module also provides an opportunity for creative activity: students will write weekly poetic exercises in the forms studied to enhance their appreciation of formal and rhythmic effects.

We will look at inherited forms -- such as blank verse, sonnets, ballads, sestinas, and heroic couplets -- as a wide range of poets have adapted them, and at some of the many free and experimental forms developed by poets in the twentieth century. 

Almost all the primary material for the module will come from Margaret Ferguson et al (eds), The Norton Anthology of Poetry, fourth edition (1996).

Learning

The module will be delivered by two-hour seminars devoted primarily to reading and discussing students' poetic exercises and introducing poetic forms and metres.

By the end of the module, students will have acquired, both as readers and writers...

• A working understanding of some of the basic English poetic forms (particularly iambic metre)
• An insight into the significance, function, and development of form and metre in twentieth-century poetry in English
• A critical appreciation of the relations between the formal and thematic aspects of poetry

Assessment

• An essay of not more than 2,000 words on some aspect of poetic form in modern poetry
• Nine poems, each in a form covered by the module  

The module mark will be calculated either as Poems 70% and Essay 30% or Poems 30% and Essay 70%, whichever yields the higher mark.