Masterclass: Poetry's Architecture | How to build a poem | Arvon
Masterclass: Poetry’s Architecture
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Masterclass: Poetry’s Architecture

How to build a poem
Tutor
  • Emily Berry
Date Tuesday October 22nd 2024, 19:00-21:00 BST
Location Online

Suppose a poem were a kind of building? After all, ‘stanza’ famously means ‘room’. The philosopher Gaston Bachelard wrote, ‘If I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.’

A poem is also a protected space for dreaming, and as such it must be well built. In this masterclass led by award-winning poet Emily Berry, you will examine poetic form with an emphasis on the intersection of concrete and lyric poetry, exploring how the shape of a poem works to channel its energy and amplify its resonance. Through close readings and practical exercises, you will examine poems built as pillars or blocks, exploded poems, and poems with layering, spaces or voids. You will come away with a range of new building techniques for constructing your own work.


The Masterclass will be delivered via Zoom webinar, so you can take the session at your own pace, without the pressure of having your video or camera on. Sessions are also recorded so if you are unable to attend live, you will have access to the recording for a month afterwards.

Online: £40

Concessions: £20

As part of our effort to increase participation in the arts, half-price concessions are available for this course at checkout. There are a limited number of free subsidised places for those who cannot afford the concession price.

We are committed to making our Arvon at Home programme accessible to as many people as possible.

Across all of Arvon at Home

Masterclasses 

Online Writing Day

How I Write

Online Writing Weeks and Evening Courses

Subject to funding/permissions (please contact arvonathome@arvon.org for more details)

If you have any access issues that we have not covered here, please contact us on access@arvon.org

See here for more access information.

"These zoom opportunities are really helping to open my world and keep me inspired to write."
— Masterclass participant
"Arvon at Home creates a model to participate in inspirational tutoring for writers, at a distance. The feeling of attending to my writing life in an excellent fashion, and still having a half-day for my work and caring responsibilities at home, felt like a good balance."
— Masterclass participant
"It was an absolutely brilliant session and very very useful. And it made me realise how much I’ve missed this kind of workshop because of having children and family that I can’t leave. Now we’re all in the same boat the online stuff is truly transformative."
— Masterclass participant

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