Fixity and Flux: poetry in motion
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- Start Date: 02 Jun 2025End Date: 30 Jun 2025Mon (Evening): 18:00 - 20:00OnlineFull fee £129.00 Senior fee £129.00 Concession £84.00
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What is the course about?
This online literature course asks: What is poetic form? In what ways might the ‘form’ and ‘content’ of a poem fit together? How might form allow a writer to connect with poetic tradition – or to alter it? This course will take a deep dive into what T. S. Eliot called the ‘fixity and flux’ of poetic form, exploring everything from sonnets to villanelles, odes to free verse. We will consider elements of form including rhyme, rhythm, metre, and stanza, and investigate how poets have used form to heighten the expressive possibilities of their writing.
What will we cover?
We will read poems in a variety of forms, including traditional forms and more open forms, and from a range of time periods. Throughout, our attention will be on the formal qualities of poetry, so that our discussions will be rooted in an understanding of what makes a poem a poem.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Confidently identify and discuss a range of poetic forms
- Understand how form and content work together in a poem
- Practice skilful close read and analysis of poetry.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
No previous literary study is required. All you need is an enthusiasm for poetry, a willingness to read and discuss poems, and an openness to the views and ideas of others.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught through a mixture of tutor presentation, group discussion, small group activities, and close reading and analysis.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
The tutor will supply digital materials comprising the poems under discussion and any additional reading.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
The tutor will also be teaching the online course HLT357 The Miracle of Prose Poetry on 17 May. Look for other poetry courses on our website at www.citylit.ac.uk under history, culture and writing/literature/poetry.
Suzannah V. Evans is a poet based in Bristol. She is the author of Brightwork and Marine Objects / Some Language (Guillemot Press, 2021 and 2020), and the editor of All Keyboards are Legitimate: Versions of Jules Laforgue (Guillemot Press, 2023). A selection of her work appears in the anthology New Poetries VIII (Carcanet, 2021). Her poetry has been broadcast on BBC Radio, performed at international festivals, and awarded a Northern Writers’ Award and the Ivan Juritz Prize for Creative Experiment. She completed her PhD in modern poetry at Durham University.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.