Poetry 101 Elements of Craft

POETRY 101

This class is designed to give you a brief, but intense, overview of the craft of poetry. You can do as much work, or as little as you can live with. The course will be followed in a few months by Poetry 202, further down the rabbit hole of craft, technique, method and theory. In between the teaching sessions, at the same time and place, there will be meetings for generative writing, and group discussion related to the craft prompt assigned. There is no cost, but to access the posted information you must have a membership with Poets & Writers Groups.

FIRST MEETING   Monday, October 6, 2025, 9pm-11pm Atlantic time

Sessions    Monday nights, 9PM-11PM Atlantic time

10 sessions, total

1. October 6, 2025
2. October 13, 2025
3. October 20, 2025
4. October 27, 2025
5. November 3, 2025
6. November 10, 2025
7. November 17, 2025
8. November 24, 2025
9. December 1, 2025
10. December 8, 2025

Zoom link is in the announcements. 

Topics

1. what’s at stake / titles and first lines
2. diction / word clusters
3. sonics
4. pronouns, tense
5. imagery, slant and direct
6. imagery, deep and surreal
7. line breaks, enjambment
8. rhyme and beat
9. white space, stanza breaks
10. punctuation

Resources & Homework

An ongoing list of poetry resources will be posted in the class folder.

Homework, assignments and prompts will be provided with each session, but none of it is mandatory. How much you do is your decision. This material will also be posted in the class folder.

Nothing will be graded or assessed.

No student piece will be workshopped. This is a class in the ‘how’ of poetry.

Contact information:

https://groups.pw.org/profile/cshillibeer