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chocowrites
08-16-2011, 04:32 AM
Hi :)

I write mostly prose, but I lovelovelove reading poetry, and I do sometimes write poems for fun. My college offers a poetry creative writing class that's in a workshop style. They also offer a few English classes focusing on poetry movements where you only read it and analyze it but don't write it.

For someone who doesn't know much about poetry technique and is not big on writing poems, which option do you suggest? I definitely want to become more grounded in poetry in general and learn more about poetry's mechanics and how people write it, since I have only been reading poetry for a year or two. But I feel like learning how to write poetry better would definitely help me write better prose. Right now, I'm leaning towards the reading/analytical type classes, because I feel like you can learn a lot about writing from reading. But I'd also like to get critiqued. So does anyone have any advice/experience on which type of class would be more ideal for someone with little knowledge/skill?

thank you!

Magdalen
08-16-2011, 04:46 AM
Agree with your learning toward poetry classes where you "read it and analyze it but don't write it." There's also a very handy thread* right here on AW!

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=210901






*there's actually more than one, if you search.

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Medievalist
08-16-2011, 04:51 AM
Take a couple of the reading of poetry classes.

Blarg
08-16-2011, 05:07 AM
I'd take the poetry survey course (I'm guessing that's what you mean). There will always be workshops and you don't need to be in school to get into one. Heck, you can workshop your poems on the internet, too. But exposure to a wide variety of poetry in a balanced, informed and organized fashion -- maybe even by a gifted taskmaster -- isn't something you can recreate on your own. A good teacher can shave years off the time it takes to learn something.

chocowrites
08-16-2011, 05:12 AM
Ah, thank you so much for the advice!

I will be taking one of the survey classes, then.

William Haskins
08-16-2011, 05:13 AM
Take a couple of the reading of poetry classes.


yes.

if you take the classes where you read and analyze poetry and you don't write poetry (furiously) outside of the class, it wasn't meant to be.