Short course
Polishing and Editing your Poetry
Course status:
Applications being accepted
Dates and time:
19/01/2027 - 23/03/202710:30 - 12:30
Study format:
In-person weekly
Fees:
£315.00
W. B. Yeats said, ‘Art only begins after all when something has finally gone down the rat hole after banging about the room.’ Whether you write metrical poetry or free verse, you will be provided with ample time on this course to chase your first thoughts around your poems until they turn into your best thoughts.
You will have the opportunity to revise, refine, and arrange existing poems of your own in the weekly workshops, and you will become a more discerning editor as you review the work of others in these sessions. You will also be presented with the drafts and finished poems of published poets in preliminary discussions so that you can learn different techniques of revision. Prompts for fresh poems will be generated in the process.
During these workshops and discussions, you will discover strategies for finding the right title for a poem and its opening line. You will learn about syntax and its relation to the lineation of a poem. You will be encouraged to think again about rhyme and rhythm, and experiment with recasting poems into different forms. When you review your imagery and the images in the expressions you use, you will begin to crave that ‘certain strangeness, something of the blossoming of the aloe’, which Walter Pater saw is ‘an element in all true works of art’. You will begin to revise so that your poems can excite or surprise us.
Towards the end of the course, you will consider individual books of poets so that you can think about different ways of arranging your own poems into the form of a chapbook or full-length collection. As you do so, you may well be surprised by ideas for yet more poetry.
Book this course
Book your place online using the button below.
Course starts Tuesday 19 January 2027
This is an in-person course which requires your attendance at the weekly meetings in Oxford on Tuesdays, 10.30am-12.30pm.
Week 1: Introduction: is your first thought always your best thought?
Week 2: Drafting and finding the right form for a poem
Week 3: Titles and first lines of poems
Week 4: Syntax, lineation, and breaking for a stanza
Week 5: Revising for the sake of rhythm
Week 6: Revising for the sake of rhyme
Week 7: The war against cliché
Week 8: Reviewing your imagery
Week 9: Is a poem ever finished, or only abandoned?
Week 10: Chapbooks and full-length collections
Course aims
Course aim:
To help students hone essential techniques for revising and editing their poetry.
Course objectives:
1. To teach students essential techniques for revising and editing their poetry through reviewing old and new examples of poems and early drafts.
2. To create a cohesive, mutually supportive, but rigorous group in which the contributors’ own drafts of poetry can be developed and evaluated.
3. To guide participants through the process of arranging their poems into a chapbook or full-length collection through assessment of exemplary material and workshop discussion.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course:
1. Students will have a sound knowledge of different techniques for revising and editing poetry;
2. they will be able to write and revise poems to final draft stage;
3. and be able to give sound, in-depth judgements on the writing of others.
Level and demands
The Department’s Weekly Classes are taught at FHEQ Level 4, ie first year undergraduate level, and you will be expected to engage in a significant amount of private study in preparation for the classes. This may take the form, for instance, of reading and analysing set texts, responding to questions or tasks, or preparing work to present in class.
Teaching methods
Teaching and Learning will take place mainly in presentations, group discussions, and workshop sessions. During each class students will be introduced briefly to the work of contemporary and earlier poets as a means of exploring different techniques of revision and poetic forms, and to help provide prompts for the writing of fresh poems, but the students’ own work will be the focus each week in the workshops.
Assessment methods
Only those students who have registered for assessment and accreditation, in advance of the course start date, can submit coursework/assignments for assessment.
Assessment
You will be set various pieces of work for the course. The first of 500 words is due halfway through your course. This does not count towards your final outcome but preparing for it, and the feedback you are given, will help you prepare for your assessed pieces of work totalling 1,500 words due at the end of the course. The assessed work is marked pass or fail.
Dr Edward Clarke
Edward Clarke’s poetry collections include Cherubims (Kelsay Books, 2022) and A Book of Psalms (Paraclete Press, 2020). His critical books include The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry (Iff Books, 2014) and The Later Affluence of Yeats and Stevens (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). He is a Departmental Lecturer in Lifelong Learning (English Literature and Creative Writing) at the Department for Continuing Education, Oxford University, and a Fellow of Kellogg College.
Academic credit
Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme (CATS Points)
Please note, students who do not register for assessment and accreditation during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun. If you wish to gain credit from completing this course you must register to do so before the course starts.
Only those who have registered for assessment and accreditation will be awarded CATS points for completing work to the required standard. Please note that assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.
Learn more about the Credit Accumulation Transfer Scheme.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee for assessment and accreditation.
Digital certificate of completion
Students who are registered for assessment and accreditation and pass their final assignment will also be eligible for a digital Certificate of Completion. Information on how to access the digital certificate will be emailed to you after the end of the course. The certificate will show your name, the course title and the dates of the course attended. You will be able to download the certificate and share it on social media if you choose to do so.
Fees
| Description | Costs |
|---|---|
| Course fee (with no assessment) | £315.00 |
| Assessment and Accreditation fee | £60.00 |
Funding
If you are in receipt of a UK state benefit, or are a care-leaver in the UK, you may be eligible for a reduction of 50% of tuition fees. Please see the below link for full details:
Concessionary fees for short courses
Recommended reading
Recommended reading is optional and you are not required to purchase these books to study this course.
Library facilities
All weekly class students may become borrowing members of the Rewley House Library, part of the Bodleian Libraries, for the duration of their course. Prospective students whose courses have not yet started are also welcome to use the Library for reference.
- More information about the Library can be found on the Bodleian Libraries website.
- This guide for Weekly Class students also provides further information.
Preparatory reading
- The Norton Anthology of Poetry / Margaret Ferguson et al. (eds)
Module code: O26P481CRW
How to enrol
Please use the ‘Book now’ button on this page.
How to register for accreditation and assessment
To be able to submit coursework and to earn credit (CATS points) for this course, if you wish to do so, you will need to register and pay an additional £60 fee. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online.
Students who do not register for CATS points during the enrolment process will not be able to do so after the course has begun.
If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education at the Department you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.
