Poetry and the Imagination

This unit focuses on poetic composition. The first half of the lectures will be largely conceptual. It will draw extensively on audio and visual materials from both poetry and the other performative arts. What, we shall ask, is a poetic act? The second half will attend to the music of poetry. Both halves are intended to furnish students with the tools to advance their own compositional practice. Students will be given a weekly list of contemporary and twentieth century poems drawn from across the English speaking world, which they are expected to immerse themselves in prior to the tutorials. Tutorials will provide a space in which students can work upon and present their own compositions. They will also serve as a recital space; every student will be expected to memorise one of the set poems and to recite it to the group.

Texts: 

Leonard, John [ed.] The Puncher & Wattmann Anthology of Australian Poetry 2009 Poetry