How Poets Work: Form, Metre, and Meaning (U03333)

? Credit Points : 20 ? SCQF Level : 10 ? Acronym : LLC-4-U03263

An understanding of metre and other formal characteristics of poetry is essential to literary critics and practising poets alike; it is barely possible to evaluate the effects achieved by an author or to establish one's own style without a working knowledge of the models and modes within and against which individual voice may be defined. Yet all too often the criticism on the subject consists of a series of definitions, with excerpts from poems treated as specimens that exhibit the characteristics described. Aimed at both critics and creative writers, this course is designed to redress the balance, taking actual poems as its starting point and focusing on the play between formal characteristics, such as metre and natural ones, such as rhythm. Naming the parts will be secondary to understanding how they work in practice.
The course will trace a broadly chronological pattern, beginning with forms and metres first attested in Middle English and ending with free verse, but overall chronology will be of less concern than analysis of how individual forms and metres develop: in many weeks the suggested reading will range from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century. We shall focus in particular on the way in which grammatical, syntactical and formal elements of the texts interact, and thereby with the way in which form both influences and is influenced by meaning. The aim will be to provide tools not only for close critical reading and historical understanding of the development of poetic genres, but also for the writing of new poetry. Critics and poets alike will gain a thorough knowledge of the poet's medium, and with it the insights that come from thinking through, rather than about, technique.

Entry Requirements

? This course is not available to visting students.

? Pre-requisites : Passes in English or Scottish Literature 1 and English, Scottish or American literature 2, with a mark of 50 or above at the first attempt in the second year course. Passes in third year courses in the subject area amounting to at least 40 credits.

? Special Arrangements for Entry : Numbers are limited and students taking degrees not involving English, Scottish or American literature need the written approval of the head of English Literature.

? Costs : Essential course texts.

Subject Areas

Home subject area

English Literature, (School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, Schedule G)

Delivery Information

? Normal year taken : 4th year

? Delivery Period : Not being delivered

? Contact Teaching Time : 2 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

? Other Required Attendance : 1 hour(s) per week for 10 weeks

All of the following classes

Type	Day	Start	End	Area
Lecture	Wednesday	09:00	10:50	Central

? Additional Class Information : 1 hour a week attendance at Autonomous Learning Group - times to be arranged

Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes

Students successfully completing the course should develop:

- a familiarity with a wide range of distinct poetic forms
- a recognition of and ability to evaluate the historical development of certain forms
- an ability to assess, critically and creatively, the specific interactions of the elements of poetic form and meaning