This course will attempt to familiarize students with a variety of international contemporary poetic traditions (and their historical roots). A major part of the course is devoted to reading and studying poems; the rest to writing poems in various styles and forms.

The two principles that guide this course are:

• One cannot write poetry well without engaging (imitating and responding to) one of various poetic tradition(s), preferably the latter.
• Writing poetry provides an excellent way of learning how it is made and how it can be understood and analyzed.

In this course we'll read from several different traditions and try to imitate them. The traditions I've chosen are: The Classica Greek lyric tradition, the Classical Chinese lyric tradition, the Arab Pre-Islamic qassida tradition, the Western fixed forms tradition, The Walt Whitman tradition, and Modernist and Postmodernist experimental tradition.

The class format will include class discussion of reading selections and workshop of students' poems. We will consider how twentieth century poets have drawn on their traditions and we will explore writing in modes drawn from and inspired by these experimentations.

Course Requirements:

Assignments include sheaves of poems to be submitted to me on assigned dates; revised individual poems to be submitted to workshop on assigned dates; 3-page reader's reports in which you respond to the readings; conferences to discuss your progress in class; a final portfolio of your best work in the class (15 pages).