Reading and Annotation: Welcome back to poetry! This week we’ll do some revision
with the aim of developing more polished work for the end of the quarter.
In The Poet’s Companion, read “The Energy of Revision,” 186-192.
Creative Writing: Take a poem (or series of poems) you’ve begun in the last six weeks
and revise it/them seriously. Try various “takes.” Some options to consider:
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Turn a free-verse poem into a structured poem.
Break up a structured poem into free verse.
Remove every cliché and everything boring.
Do not use the verb “to be.”
Cut up: print out the work, cut it up with scissors, and re-assemble. Leave some
things out. Retype the work, adjusting as necessary for syntax but leaving some of
the rough places rough.
Change a first-person poem into third person.
Take yourself out of the poem entirely.
Play with the sound of the words.
Take a small group of poems (up to five) and rework them as a series, or parts of
a longer poem.
See the revision strategies link in the Week 7 folder.
Submit your revised long poem or series of shorter poems (a total of 30 lines or more).
Include a note about the work you’ve done, the revisions you’ve made, where you
started, what you did, and where you ended up (a paragraph or two). If you wish, you
may submit two or more variations on a single poem. (The note and the poem/s should be
in a single document.)
Due Monday, May 23.
Share: Submit your revised poem or poems to your group for discussion. Include a note
about your revision process; where you started, what kind of feedback you received, how
you went about the revision, and what sort of changes you made. A paragraph or two is
fine.
Due Monday, May 23.