More or Less? [Rae Armantrout]
Modernist poet Ezra Pound famously said that poetry is the most compressed form of verbal expression. By this he didn’t mean that a poem is necessarily brief. He meant that poetry packs more meaning (or activity) into each word than does any other literary form. In this course you will study poems by such masters as Emily Dickinson and William Carlos Williams to see how they accomplish this feat. Special emphasis will be placed on the process of revision. Students will examine early drafts of works by well known figures. Rae Armantrout will also discuss several versions of one of her own pieces. Class members will practice creative revision. There will also be in-class writing exercises to generate new work.
Students must submit three poems in progress—or finished poems with which they are not entirely satisfied—by October 25 in one document to christine@hugohouse.org
Please also be prepared to distribute copies of your poems to your classmates in class.
FAQ
Complete FAQMost classes are offered at a general and member tuition rates based on instruction hours, with Hugo House members receiving a 10% discount on classes fewer than six sessions.
Early bird discounts are available during the first two weeks of registration and apply to both general and member tuition rates.
To help provide financial accessibility to our class offerings, some classes each quarter are offered with a sliding-scale tuition model, allowing students to pay what they can for the class. For these classes, tuition increments starting at $5 and going up to 125% of the standard pricing will be listed on the page.
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Class sessions may be recorded if a session falls on a holiday, or if a student has access needs. Class recordings are not guaranteed.
We do not tolerate racist, sexist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic or any other oppressive behaviors, regardless of who commits them. Please check out our full community guidelines by clicking here. If an instance of community guidelines are violated and not resolved within the classroom, students may let us know by filling out the student incident report.
Classes may be cancelled if less than the minimum number of students are enrolled within ten days before the class start date. If Hugo House needs to cancel a class for any reason, students can choose between receiving a full credit toward future classes or full refund.
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