Advanced Poetry Workshop

June 2 – July 15, 2025
(asynchronous)

Course Description

This online poetry workshop is designed for working adults and advanced high school students who want to polish their poetry skills within a flexible time frame. In an asynchronous forum, students participate in weekly text-based discussions, analyzing classical poems together and commenting constructively on each other’s poetry. Students also learn about the “business” side of poetry, how the poetry market currently works, and strategies for submitting poems for publication.

Class Format: There are no live classes. Students will be expected to engage weekly on an online forum and to give constructive feedback on poems by fellow students. Students will also receive feedback from the instructor.

Class Weeks: June 2 – July 15

Text: All materials are provided by the instructor. Readings include sample poems in major genres, literary analyses by poets, and selections from public discourse on the current state of English poetry.

Homework: Weekly light readings and submissions of either poems or feedback. Students will be graded on the timeliness of their submissions and their collegiality when providing feedback to their peers.

Prerequisites: Previous experience analyzing or writing English poetry of any type.

Other requirements: Students will need to create a membership account at Scholars Online to register for the course.

Create an Account and Register

Syllabus

Week	Topic	Assignments
June 2	Who are you writing for? Poetry audiences in the West after the World Wars.	Identify which audience(s) you’d like to write for. Post a poem from at least one living and one dead poet whom you’d like to imitate.
June 9	Sounds: alliteration, consonance, assonance, and rhyme	Read and analyze the week’s readings on the forum. Post a poem of your own that uses “sound effects.”
June 16	Meter: stress patterns and feet	Write thoughtful feedback for at least 4 other students’ poems posted from last week.
June 23	Narrative Poems	Read and analyze the week’s readings on the forum. Post a ballad or other narrative poem of your own. Explain why you chose the form / meter you did.
June 30	Sonnets	Write thoughtful feedback for at least 4 other students’ poems posted from last week.
July 1	Other Forms and Blank Verse	Read and analyze the week’s readings on the forum. Post a poem in any form of your choosing.
July 8	Publishing Your Poetry	Write thoughtful feedback for at least 4 other students’ poems posted from last week.
July 15	Independent Research: Draft a list of journals and create a strategy for submitting your poems for publication	Post a revised poem as if it were a submission to a publisher. Final poems are due by July 22.
July 22	Final poem submissions due