Should all lyric poems take place in the present? If you’re writing a narrative poem about something that happened a while ago, do you have to use the past tense? Verb tenses are something that most of us learned in grade school but haven’t thought much about since. For a poet, being able to identify the various tenses isn’t the point; it’s knowing how to choose the right tense for a poem and knowing when to shift it. This workshop will examine some of the approaches that poets have used to control and manipulate the passage of time in their poems, with an emphasis on how verb tenses can be used to add immediacy, introduce tension, or bring a poem to life.
LIVE VIDEO CONFERENCE: This workshop will be held via our online video conferencing platform, Zoom. The dates and times will remain the same. You can view brief tutorials on using the platform here. Shortly before the start date participants will receive an email with login info. Please check your spam if you don’t see it.
If you need an accommodation for this workshop, please contact us at access@{{{{homeurl_non_www}}}}. We will attempt to fulfill all requests, but advance notice is necessary to arrange for some accessibility services.
