Weekly reading and class exercises focus on prose and different kinds of poetry. Students are quizzed regularly, usually orally, on this material. Writers are encouraged to develop novel and vivid images, including simile, metaphor and symbol. We also investigate different ways of making a poem musical by outlining varieties of rhythm, assonance, alliteration and syntax.
Students write a new poem at least every other week.
They choose and revise their four best poems at the end of the semester to determine most of the final grade. The course also carries Fine Arts credit.