What is the responsibility of the poet in times of public mourning? Why is it that we turn to poetry during periods of tragedy or deep sorrow? In this one-week intensive course, we will be in conversation with how poetry informs our public & private responses to loss & interrogate the poet’s position as empath, archivist, & town crier. If it is that the poet has a unique responsibility in times of crisis, then how do we ensure our poems are wrought to endure? Together, we will look toward our own history—the pastoral, the eulogy, & the elegy in particular—to construct new fusions of form, content, & figurative language as potential access points to contemplate the ways absence creates presence & explores how grief can often look suspiciously like desire. We will read from a diverse collection of poets in order to both build & dismantle our definition of the elegy.

In addition to submitting work, you will be expected to comment on 1-2 of your classmates’ experiments daily. At the end of the course, I will conduct one-on-one conversations with each student via email to discuss further revisions and how to move forward.