Poetry Reading Group
This Poetry Reading Group explores a wide range of poetry across different themes and periods, in a supportive and friendly group. Each week we will read and discuss a selection of 2-4 poems, focusing on a different theme each session. The tutor will select poetry from different poets, forms and periods, introducing you to a broad range of poetic voices and perspectives. Poetry is for everyone - come and join us!
Choose a starting date
Learning modes and locations may be different depending on the course start date. Please check the location of your chosen course and read our guide to learning modes and locations to help you choose the right course for you.
- Start Date: 01 Oct 2025End Date: 26 Nov 2025Wed (Daytime): 10:30 - 12:30In PersonLocation: Keeley StreetDuration: 8 sessions (over -9 weeks)Course Code: HLT374Tutors: Sophie OxenhamFull fee £219.00 Senior fee £175.00 Concession £142.00
Please note: We offer a wide variety of financial support to make courses affordable. Just visit our online Help Centre for more information on a range of topics including fees, online learning and FAQs.
What is the course about?
This Poetry Reading Group gives you the opportunity to explore a wide range of poetry across different themes, in a supportive and friendly group. Each week we will read and discuss a selection of 2-4 poems, focusing on a different theme each session. The tutor will select poetry from across different poets, forms and periods, introducing you to a broad range of poetic voices and perspectives.
The tutor will provide brief slide presentations to support and develop our discussion, but the main focus will be on exploring how poets create meaning and effects through language, with an emphasis on enjoying the imaginative pleasures of the language we will encounter. We will be deepening our understanding of the themes and concerns of each of our chosen poems, and thinking about them in relation to one another – what broader similarities and differences emerge between poems, and how might this enrich our thinking about their shared themes and concerns?
The final session of the course will provide an opportunity for the group, should they wish, to make their own suggestions for themes and poems (this process, and the final selection for discussion in class, will be facilitated by the tutor.)
What will we cover?
Each week we will explore 2-4 poems, across a wide range of poets, forms and periods, taking a different theme each week.
Details of weekly themes and poets for each term’s will be confirmed nearer the course start date – please check back on the website - but indicative examples include:
Weekly themes may include some from the below, tbc:
Water – Rain, Rivers, and Sea; ‘Nature’; Time; Imagination, Dreams and Reverie; Self, Identity and Society; The City and Modernity; ‘Home’ and Migrations; Solitude, Friendship and Affinity; Memory; Love and Desire; Animals, Humans and the ‘More-than-Human’; Monsters and Devils; Loss, Consolation and Renewal.
Poets may include some from the below, tbc:
John Donne, Isabella Whitney, Mary Wroth, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, Charlotte Smith, John Keats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Clare, William Blake, Emily Bronte, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, Louis McNeice, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Audre Lorde, Alice Oswald, Inua Ellams, Roger Robinson, Ocean Vuong, Jason Allen-Paisant.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
By the end of this course you should be able to...
- Begin to feel more confident about reading poetry from a range of periods and perspectives
- Begin to develop your understanding of some poetic forms and language
- Begin to develop your thinking about selected weekly themes
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The level of the course is introductory and no previous knowledge or experience of studying poetry is necessary. Anyone with an interest in discussing poetry is welcome.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
A variety of teaching methods will be used, including brief tutor-led slide presentations, readings of short poems, and class discussion.
A digital handout of poems /extracts will be sent to you a few days before each course session by the lecturer; you will find it helpful to read these in advance of the session if possible, but it is not essential. A paper copy handout will be provided in class each week.
Please note that for HLT374 Autumn term poetry reading group, there will be a break week on 29.11.25. For HLT378 Spring term poetry reading group, there will be a break week on 18.2.26.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
Please bring a pen and paper for notetaking.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
HLT378 Poetry Reading Group
For other poetry courses in the Literature programme, please see www.citylit.ac.uk under History, Culture and Humanities/Literature/Poetry.
Sophie has taught Literature, Performing Arts and Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities for over twenty years, working for the Open University, Leeds University, and a range of Adult Learning Institutions before joining City Lit. Previously she freelanced as a theatre and opera director in community theatre and at English National Opera. She has an MA in Nineteenth Century English and American Literature, and a PhD in Early Modern Life Writing. She brings both experience and enthusiasm to her work with adult audiences.
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.