Unity in Poetry

One of the features of the "good poem" is that it should possess unity. This should not be confused with the classical Greek idea of "three dramatic unities" - action, time and space. Indeed in many ways these could not apply to poetry as a poem is not necessarily a story, whereas a stage play usually is.

Unity in poetry is that which holds the piece together as a single work of literary art. In the most obvious case it might be a rhyme scheme, or some other feature of construction such as meter or syllable count.

Many times when reviewing I have come upon poems which, having established a unity, fail to maintain it. This is not the same as for example a free verse poem that has no apparent unity and therefore can go anywhere it wants. Actually this type of poetry does have and should have a unity as well, and these are some of the fascinating areas this class will be investigating during the month of August.

There are sometimes genuine reasons too for departing from an established unity, perhaps to emphasize a particular point, but in most cases the challenge will be to set, and maintain, unities in your writing. For the rebels amongst us there is also the poem that has absolutely no apparent unity whatsoever ? except the unity of its own disunity.

I should like to run classes twice weekly on Fridays and Tuesdays from 4th August through 1st September at a time mutually convenient if possible although it is quite usual that not everyone enrolled will be able to take part in every session. If these days are totally out of the question, please contact me by PM and we will try to sort something out.

Areas Covered It is highly likely that some subjects will require more time spent on them than shown here. Consequently the two sessions, scheduled for the 29th Aug and 1st Sep, have not been allocated a specific subject at this time.

Fri 4th Aug: Types of unity - rhyme in regular schemes and its place as a unity in free verse.
Tue 8th Aug: Rhythm both in syllabic and metrical forms
Fri 11th Aug: Other formal unity types.
Tue 15th Aug:Unity of structure in formal and free verse.
Fri 18th Aug: Unity of content and the length of your poem.
Tue 22nd Aug: Departing from an established unity by design, reasons and methods.
Fri 25th Aug: The unity of disunity.
Spare for the time being.


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.