Poetry for Beginners: From Dabbling to Diving

The poet Mark Granier is teaching an interesting course on Poetry as part of the Adult Education series in UCD.

in Belfield

starting 15th April for 6 Mondays

FEE €115

Patrick Kavanagh once wrote: ‘I dabbled in verse and it became my life.’ Have you ever dabbled and wanted to take it farther? Or read a poem and thought ‘That’s amazing! How is it done or could I do it?’ Ever wondered why rhyme sometimes works (and often doesn’t), or what makes poetry different from prose? Or why line-breaks are important? Though designed for beginners, this course is also suitable for those who have written some poetry and are now looking for direction and feedback from others at a similar stage. Apart from the basics (learning how to break into the blank page with triggering exercises etc.), sessions will involve discussion of a number of poems by established poets whose methods and techniques will be examined. Rather than critiquing students’ earlier work, the emphasis will be on producing something new and surprising, having an adventure with language.

Link here 

Provisional list of key topics to be covered:

• Rhyme
• Metaphor
• Imagery
• Riddles
• Rhythm
• Prose Poetry
• Meter
• Blank Verse
• Sonnets
• Haiku
• Parallelism (and more)

Who is the course for?

Serious Beginners or writers who want to try something different