IMAGO DEI - an on-line Poetry course for Christian poetry

The course is broadly divided into two. The first half is about how the Christian life is one of constant innovation in which the creative power of the Holy Spirit can be sought by trying out contrasting forms and exploring new channels of expression. Each lesson entails a a piece of short writing. While analogies with experimental method are often misleading, the purpose of these exercises is to shift the learner from established habits in order to deepen and refresh them

This part of the course will also involve you in reading examples of published work by Christian poets of the main traditions of the Faith. Writing and reading are mutually inspirational. Any opportunity to share readings and comment should be welcomed. At the end of the course you should be able to access texts, draft, edit, experiment, revise and complete your own poems and to comment insightfully on those of others. Guidance will be given on new techniques to try and new writers to read.
In the second half of the course, the learner should attempt a longer piece which could either be a full collection of poems based on a theme, or an image. You would need to discuss the theme with your tutor before embarking on it. It might be an autobiography in verse, or an account of someone else’s life. Any theme could be considered. You may be able to get material from the internet, or your local library on which to work. Finding a good library in which it is comfortable to work is a primary research task Many academic libraries have access to online journals which can be useful. The theme must be ambitious in order to develop techniques learned in the first part. A parallel challenge will be to create a deeply personal, but technically accomplished and spiritual work.

Part 1

The first half of the course will look at the following - some of the headings will recur every week, because they are so integral:

  • The problem of Christian poetry.
  • The difference between poetry and prayer
  • The difference between poetry and prose.
  • The difference between Lyric Techniques such as Lyric, Song, Ballad, Elegy, Ode, Pastoral, Sonnet etc and Narrative or Dramatic Verse.
  • Using and editing source material.
  • Drafting and re-drafting.
  • Adapting material from other sources.
  • Using different voices.
  • Using and experimenting with existing structures and forms. Fixed and fluid forms. Language Poetry.
  • Playing with words and images.
  • Writing in the style of other writers.Transition to Part 2
  • Discovering a point of departure. Extended project.
  • Key Reading

Nicholson & Lee, eds. 1917. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse http://www.bartleby.com/verse/ This is an extensive, but eccentric collection which has the advantage of being on line.
It needs to be supplemented by:
G.Lacey May’s English Religious Verse, An Anthology.Dent, Everyman 1937.
Lord David Cecil’s Oxford Book of Christian Verse 1940 O.U.P.
Norman Nicholoson’s Penguin Anthology 1942
The Penguin Book of Religious Verse by R.S. Thomas 1963
Helen Gardner’s The Faber Book of Religious Verse.1972
All out of print now, but available from second hand dealers.

Donald Davies’ New Oxford Book of Christian Verse O.U.P. (USA) 1988 ISBN-10: 0192821571

Alwyn Marriage’s New Christian Poetry Collins Flame 1990 0-00-599207-9

David Impastato’s Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry ;An interesting American collection.O.U.P. (USA) 1996.

If you go to the Wikipedia entry for the Oxford Book of English Verse  you should be able to access the poets and texts directly included in all the Oxford Books.

The following texts are recommended for this course, but they are not compulsory reading:

  • The Creative Writing Coursebook: Forty Authors Share Advice and Exercises for Fiction & Poetry
    Andrew Motion (Foreword), Julia Bell (Ed.), Pan Macmillan, 2001.
    ISBN: 0333782259
  • The Oxford Guide to Word Games
    Tony Augarde, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2003.
    ISBN: 0198662645
  • Getting into Poetry: A Readers’ and Writers’ Guide to the Poetry Scene
    Paul Hyland, Bloodaxe Books, 1992.
    ISBN: 1852241187
  • Writing Poems
    Peter Sansom, Bloodaxe Books, 1993.
    ISBN: 1852242043
  • The Poet’s Manual and Rhyming Dictionary
    Frances Stillman, Thames and Hudson,1972.
    ISBN: 0500270309

Learning / Teaching Methods

Response to the course can either be through email, (bl0ndel@bluewin.ch) or by posting. Anyone can do it. I will send each lesson a fortnight from now on until the course is complete, giving a fortnight to complete exercises.

Assessment

As this course is non-credit-bearing there are no exams or assessments. The extended composition should be looked upon as publishable, though seeking publication is up up the learner.

Copyright Duncan McGibbon