Poetry

Poetry Courses
Study online or in London

From introductory courses to the more in-depth longer courses, revisit classic works or enjoy discovering new poets, sharing your views in lively class discussions.

Courses available both in-person and online

We offer a range of long and short courses allowing you to choose between online and in-person learning. All our courses are live, interactive, and taught by expert tutors. No matter how you prefer to learn, we've got the class for you. See our guide to online learning for more information about accessing our live online courses.

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  1. The seven ages of poetry
    Course start date:  Tue 16 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Julian Birkett
    Join us to get an overview of how English poetry has developed over the centuries by looking closely at some classic poems and seeing how ideas of the time shaped their form and their subject matter – from epics made to be sung in the mead hall to the concentrated elegance of the Renaissance sonnet to the melancholy of the Romantic ode to the free verse of modern times.
    Full fee £229.00 Senior fee £183.00 Concession £149.00
  2. Towards freedom: from Christina Rossetti to Sylvia Plath
    Evening
    Course start date:  Tue 23 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Laurie Smith
    We look at how some women poets challenged the expectations of their families and the society in which they lived (reflected in the male-dominated publishing world of their time) to create highly original poetry which changed people’s views of what poetry could achieve.











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    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00
  3. The poetry of modernity: Baudelaire, Dickinson, Rilke, Mandelstam
    Course start date:  Thu 25 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Stephen Winfield
    Follow the paths taken by four of the most courageous, life-affirming, uncompromisingly individual poets of the modern era, as they confront the challenges of psychological, sexual and artistic alienation (Baudelaire), religious and political conformity (Dickinson and Mandelstam), and of a world lost to materialism and the march of technology, devoid of all spirituality (Rilke: “You must change your life”).



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
  4. Exploring literature: Irish Poetry in the 20th Century
    Course start date:  Tue 30 Jan 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Niall Culligan
    In this introductory course, we will read and discuss Irish poetry from across the twentieth century, examining how poets responded to cultural and political issues, such as Irish Independence, religion, and the Troubles. Poets will include: W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, Eavan Boland, Louis MacNeice, Patrick Kavanagh, Derek Mahon, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, and many others.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £119.00 Concession £97.00
    Rating:
    93% of 100
  5. Romantic poets of the south west
    Evening
    Course start date:  Thu 1 Feb 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Woody River
    With its wild, rugged terrain and history of radicalism, the West Country was an ideal setting for the Romantic imagination. Drawing on a selection of poems, letters, journals and manifestos, this course explores how the landscape and people of the South West shaped the ideas and inspired the poetry of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £149.00 Senior fee £149.00 Concession £97.00
  6. The world of Bob Dylan
    Course start date:  Thu 2 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Richard Niland
    This class explores the work of Bob Dylan, examining his song writing, musical style, and persona in the context of American cultural, political, and musical history, exploring how Dylan engages with American culture through his absorption and reworking of multifarious aspects of both historical and modern Americana.
    Full fee £179.00 Senior fee £143.00 Concession £116.00
  7. Struggle to be heard: Rimbaud, Cavafy, Tsvetaeva, Binta Breeze
    Evening
    Course start date:  Thu 2 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Keeley Street

    Tutors:  Laurie Smith
    We look at four poets who struggled to be heard or accepted because their work was so different from what their society expected. What were the barriers they had to overcome and how did they win through to become admired and highly regarded? What made one of the poets stop writing at the age of 21 and the other three continue for the rest of their lives? What makes the poetry of all of them so original, and what can we learn from their resilience?
    Full fee £69.00 Senior fee £69.00 Concession £45.00
  8. Keats and eternity
    Weekend
    Course start date:  Sun 19 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Off Site

    Tutors:  Laurie Smith
    In the house where many of them were written, we will explore why Keats’s poems are regarded as exceptionally beautiful. How did he achieve this? We will see that it wasn’t luck or simply inspiration, but the result of choices which reflect important aspects of Keats’ personality. Includes ‘Ode to a Nightingale’, Ode to a Grecian Urn’ and ‘To Autumn’.







    This course will take place at Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London NW3 2RR.
    Full fee £49.00 Senior fee £39.00 Concession £32.00
  9. Six poets: the 20th century female experience
    Evening
    Course start date:  Thu 30 May 2024

    Location on this date:  Online

    Tutors:  Woody River
    Through the words of six female poets from different countries spanning a hundred years, we will explore what it meant to be a woman in the 20th Century. The poems we will read cover a diverse range of topics such as desire and sexuality, loneliness and race, gender and feminism. Includes poems by Charlotte Mew, Anna Akhmatova, Maria Pawlikowska-Jasnorzewska, Forugh Farrokhzad, Gwendolyn Brooks and Carol Ann Duffy.



    This course will be delivered online. See the ‘What is the course about?’ section in course details for more information.
    Full fee £149.00
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