Poetry Courses
Study online or in London

In the 1970s, Heaney wrote a series of poems about the Iron Age ‘bog bodies’, human cadavers mummified in peat, lately discovered in northern Europe. On this course we will read them alongside Heaney’s other poems of bogland and explore the poet’s abiding themes of memory, history, violence and national identity.

This short Literature course explores Coleridge’s iconic poem, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’. With ‘strange power of speech’ and a ‘glittering eye’, a mariner is compelled to keep re-telling the tale of how he shot an albatross at sea; a becalmed crew; and an encounter with a ghostly ‘spectre ship’. We consider how this tale continues to resonate with us today, and will also explore some later cultural responses to the poem.

The course will look at how some women poets challenged the expectations of their families and the society in which they lived to create highly original poetry which changed people’s views of what poetry could achieve. They had to make their way in a male-dominated publishing world with a restricted view of the poetry suitable for women – we will explore how these poets expanded what women could publish in remarkable ways.

Explore four major collections by the revered Austrian poet whose search for a restored unity of art, self and world has, for many, constituted a healing message in the midst of our pressurised modernity. From despair to affirmation, from “Whoever has no home will build none now” to “our existence’s wondrous abundances”, discover how Rilke’s journey is marked at every stage by a formal brilliance and intellectual power that invite and reward the closest attention.

We explore how Wallace Stevens wrestled with some of the deepest issues of the modern spirit, such as the need for non-religious faith and the importance of art in giving meaning to life, through writing poems. Some of his poems are very beautiful, others have a streak of sardonic humour, others have both. We will explore why Stevens felt both aspects are necessary and how he achieved them.

In celebration of Windrush Day, join us for a lively celebration of Benjamin Zephaniah, one of Britain’s most dynamic poets! This short, interactive course explores his life, his fiery poetry and the themes which make his work resonant today. Through readings, discussion and performance, you’ll get a real sense of why Zephaniah’s words continue to inspire.

Explore the astonishing range of poetic responses to a hundred years of warfare, acts of witnessing, endurance, defiance and condemnation by writers across the globe: Sassoon and Wilfred Owen in Britain, Apollinaire, Brecht, Milosz, Celan, Akhmatova and Stepanova in Europe and Russia, Darwish and Zhadan in the Middle East and Ukraine, and many others. How do they describe the indescribable? High art or doggerel, what does it matter once the bombs start to fall?