Forms of Poetry

Amy Lowell wrote, "No one expects a man to make a chair without first learning how, but there is a popular impression that the poet is born, not made, and that his verses burst from his overflowing heart of themselves. As a matter of fact, the poet must learn his trade in the same manner, and with the same painstaking care, as the cabinet-maker."

Let’s look at poetry from a designer’s perspective. As a designer of poetry, we are charged with creating works of beauty that sometimes fall within certain parameters such as: What does this “space” need? What do I want to “say” here? What are my materials? In this course, students will address the design qualities of a poem by experimenting with forms like the sonnet, ballad, ode, cento, chant, elegia, haiku, and villanelle.