Portraiture in Poetry ((4 Credits))

Catalog description

How can a poet, like a painter, effectively present the personality, appearance, history and nuances of a dimensional human being? Does a poem become a true homage to another person and tell a larger story for the reader? This course will explore ways that poets bring the people in their lives - friends, family, strangers, celebrities, the inhabitants of random encounters and imagination - to the page in evocative and vivid ways. We will examine how they use various poetic elements, including imagery, description, narrative, observation, and voice (or its absence), in addition to creating atmosphere and an emotional or political environment, to create these 'portraits.'