"To cut across the reflex of a star"
Zarin, Yuan, Heaney, Wordsworth, Troupe
Upcoming Class!
How to End Poems
The sense and music of poem have to culminate somehow. The energy that you’ve put into the inert words has to go somewhere. Where does it go? does it dissipate, open up, shut down, close, or summarize? Does the speaker undergo some kind of transformation?
There are as many ways to end poems are there are poets. Some poets feel the temptation to neatly tie together the feelings in a poem, like a bow on a present. Other poems might end with some sort of imperative or command, as if the wisdom of the speaker overtakes the end. Still, there are some methodical ways of thinking about different kinds of endings.
This class will offer participants increased capacity to understand types of endings, to closely read examples, and to have a stronger command over what kinds of endings work best for specific meanings.
2/27/25, 7-8:30 pm (EST)
$100
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Cynthia Zarin:
Tian Yuan (tr. from Chinese by William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura):
Seamus Heaney:
William Wordsworth, from The Prelude, Book I:
Wordsworth’s ice skates:
Quincy Troupe:
Modern Jazz Quartet, “Skating in Central Park,” rec. October 9, 1959:
Lots of snow and ice here, and cold, did I mention cold? Very relatable but not mundane!!!
The literary becomes visceral as Wordsworth's diction and form push and pull the reader, creating sensations of movement and momentum through the lines.