Samuel Taylor Coleridge defined poetry as “the best words in the best order.” But how do you know what order is best?
How poets handle syntax—the arrangement of words in a sentence—is crucial to everything from establishing the voice of a poem to evoking a particular response from the reader. In this workshop, we will take a close look at how sentences are put together and how changing their structure can send a poem off in a new direction. We will also examine the relationship between the sentence and the line and how to control the tension between them.
Live video conference: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. On the start date or the day before, participants will receive an email with login info (please check your spam if you don’t see it).
In this workshop you’ll learn:
- Common strategies for handling syntax;
- The role of repetition;
- Sentence structure and how it can be varied;
- Line breaks in a poem with long, complex sentences;
- Using syntax to underscore meaning and intention.
Time requirements
- N/A
Materials
- All reading materials will be provided.
Who should take this workshop?
- This workshop is designed for poets whose background in grammar and sentence structure may be weak or simply too far in the past.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@writer.org. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.