Japanese Maple: On Adjectives and Economy of Language With Frederick Meyer Japanese Maple – by Clive James Overview — 0:00:00 Two topics intertwined: Clive James’s…

Allusions and Ekphrastic Writing A lecture by Jonathan McClure Overview — 0:00:23 The topic is putting your writing in conversation with other works—poems that respond…

Community Close Read: W.S. Merwin, “For the Anniversary of My Death” A community discussion   The Poem — 0:01:02 Every year without knowing it I…

Didactic Writing   What Does ‘Didactic’ Mean? — 0:00:56 The word didactic is not a specialty term—it simply refers to writing that has a didactic…

From Cliché to Fresh Expression With Frederick Meyer   Opening the Question — 0:00:02 Tonight’s topic: cliché. It’s come up at the edges of several…

Imagery and Specificity A lecture by Jonathan McClure   Overview and Goals — 0:00:01 The received wisdom—be concrete, be specific, avoid abstractions—is largely correct. But…

Impact With Frederick Meyer What Impact Is — 0:00:02 The topic is impact: that thing where writing moves the reader. Which is, of course, a…

Intro to Formal Poetry A lecture by Jonathan McClure   Overview and Goals — 0:00:01 Today’s topic is form in poetry—specifically meter, though the session…

Metaphor and Figurative Language With Frederick   How the Evening Began — 0:00:03 This session started not with a prepared lecture but with a question:…

The Speaker as Character: Principles of Voice A lecture by Jonathan McClure   Overview — 0:00:01 Today’s focus is the speaker of a poem as…

Structure in Poetry A lecture by Jonathan   A Framework: Four Temperaments — 0:00:09 Today’s topic is structure in poetry, approached broadly. A useful starting…

Evoking Emotion: The Objective Correlative and the Pathetic Fallacy A lecture by Jonathan McClure Overview — 0:00:22 Two terms for thinking about how emotion works…

Tone in Poetry A lecture by Jonathan McClure Defining the Terms — 0:00:01 Voice, tone, and mood are often used interchangeably, but it helps to…

Using Imagery to Embody Ideas A lecture by Jonathan McClure   Overview — 0:00:49 Two guiding ideas frame the session. The first comes from William…

Using Received Repeating Forms A lecture by Jonathan McClure Overview and Goals — 0:00:01 Today’s topic is received forms—forms that have existed for a long…

A live craft workshop on how the different sounds and sonic textures in language affect the reader. Summary A lecture by Jonathan McClure Overview and…

Using Titles A lecture by Jonathan McClure Opening Thoughts — 0:00:01 Titles are hard for everybody. There’s no point pretending otherwise. One participant observed that…

Word Choice A lecture by Jonathan McClure Initial Considerations — 0:00:01 Word choice is one of those topics where almost everything is relevant, and the…

Word Choice and Inner Listening A lecture by Frederick Overview — 0:01:15 The topic tonight is word choice—primarily in the context of poetry, though the…

Wordy vs. Lyrical With Frederick Meyer   Overview — 0:00:03 Two topics that feel related but aren’t quite—overwriting, and lyrical or flowing prose—and the way…