Free Verse
Instructor: James Bartlett (Pantygynt)Includes a free two month upgraded membership! Details
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Duration: Six Weeks
Class Size: 7 Students
Seats Left: 5
This misquotation of Marx/Engels in the Communist Manifesto heralds my class on the subject of free verse which will run from Friday 31st March, throughout April 2017, ending on the 28th.
That opening sentence may sound odd from one who is currently involved in running a class on European forms, and who will be returning for a second helping of that subject in the middle of May. Nevertheless I propose to go, with as many as will, on a voyage of discovery into the realms of free verse, where I hope we shall find buried treasure.
When I suggested to Cat Ginn (I am Cat), whom I regard as one of the finest exponents of free verse on FanStory, that it might not be possible to ?teach? a subject where there were no rules, she replied that there were plenty of rules. I promptly invited her to join the class as I felt her input would be invaluable. I am still waiting for her reply.
Whether you are already, exclusively a writer of free verse, or one who believes that it is yet another form available to poets as required, or even if you have never tried it before, this has to be the class for you. Rather than draw up a detailed syllabus of what will be covered in which session, I present, in the box below, a list of topics, which may be added to from time to time, that we will be considering during the nine classroom sessions over the four weeks of the class.
We now have the benefit of voice communication in the classroom which has already proved to be a great boon when discussing rhythm and rhyme. The da-DUMs, with which many of you will be familiar, take on a whole new meaning when you can actually hear them used with real words.
?But surely we are free of all that! This is a free verse class!? I hear you exclaim. Well ?free? does not only mean ?free from?; it can mean ?free to...? Free perhaps to use it as you wish, not necessarily as some long dead, white, male poet said you must. That has to be an exciting idea.
?And what about rhyme??
Look. Why don?t you sign up and find out. If you enjoy writing, reading and discussing poetry, you will enjoy this class. I promise.
Perhaps that misquotation should have read, ?Poets of FanStory unite. You have nothing to lose but your misconceptions!?
Areas of Interest in the Context of Free Verse.
First Session
Definition.
Layout, presentation, punctuation and overall length.
Thereafter we are free to go where we wish in this list.
You will be writing in free verse throughout, but each exercise will highlight in particular the contribution made by one or more of the poetic devices from the following list.
Rhythm
Rhyme, near rhyme and assonance
Alliteration and Consonance
Repetition
Imagery
Personification
Imagery
The Prose poem
Shape or Concrete Poetry
Instructor: James Bartlett
About The Instructor:
Jim Bartlett is an ex-Royal Marine Officer, and retired teacher, with a good honours degree in Education, and English and Drama, from London University. He has been a member of a local poetry group in South Wales where he currently lives alone in a redundant farm house.
Jim started writing while serving with 45 Commando, Royal Marines in Aden in the mid 1960s. At that time he was writing mainly song lyrics but later moved on to poetry after studying it on his degree course, which he undertook as a mature student between 1972 and 1976.
He has been published in poetry magazines and newspapers from time to time. In 2005 he produced a CD of self-penned songs under the title of "Tomorrow Never Comes", and published a poetry collection of thirty-six poems in 2012 entitled, "Triple Dozen" prior to joining FanStory in March 2015. His songs and poems have won several competitions.
Jim has also lectured on English Folk Lore and Song for the WEA in SE London in the late 1970s. He was urged to enrol as an instructor on FanStory by many who found his reviews of their poetry particularly helpful.