Poetry W9
Creative Assignment : Four takes on a theme.
Choose a topic or theme that interests you – perhaps one you’ve touched on earlier in the
quarter, or something from your list of “my subjects.” Your task is to approach it from at
least 4 different angles or styles. The goal here is to shake up your own habits and try not
just one, but several things that you haven’t done before, or not much. The Poet’s
Companion has several suggestions (see the “Ideas for Writing” on pages 135-137).
1. A formal poem (sonnet, sestina, pantoum, or villanelle).
2. Free verse. Use the whole page – lines need not start at the left margin. Play with
spacing as well as with words.
3. Another formal scheme of your choosing; something with a structure that you define.
For example; a prose poem, regular stanzas (couplets, tercets, quatrains), every line begin
with the same phrase, or end with the same word… these can be as simple as 3-lined
stanzas, or elaborate structures involving alphabet play, spelling out words vertically,
puns, etc.
4. Any form you choose; formal, informal, experimental. Consider a cut-up, random
chance, quotes from conversations…
Submit your four poems to your instructor with a note on which one of these you are
most satisfied with, and why. Due date: Monday, June 6.
Submit to your group: both the poem you are most satisfied with, and one other from
your four. (total of two.) Due Monday, June 6.