An ongoing virtual poetry meter workshop based on Annie Finch’s book A Poet’s Craft, “Meter Matters” is designed for new and experienced poets and also for poetry lovers. “Meter Matters” is the place for your questions, passions, and curiosity about meter along with your own metrical poems and/or your favorite passages of metrical or rhythmic poetry.
In addition to discussion of participants’ poems, topics may include:
- What’s the difference between rhythm and meter?
- What’s the best way to scan metrical poetry and why?
- Tips to tell which syllable should be stressed in a word
- Why does reading metrical poetry aloud need a different approach than reading free verse?
- Best practices for revising poetry in meter
- The secrets of scanning different meters, such as iambic, anapestic, and trochaic
- How to appreciate poets’ different metrical styles
You are welcome to bring along your own metrical exercises or poems-in-progress for workshop discussion. Practice and discover your own metrical fingerprint. Or just listen, learn, and enjoy sensing the rhythms, reading your favorite poems in meter aloud, and discovering new ones.
“Meter Matters” is ongoing and useful for all levels of experience. Every session is different, depending on who is participating and on the poems and questions you bring. Classes are 90 minutes long. You can show up once, occasionally, or every time; you will always learn something, because what never changes is our passionate attention to poetic meter.
Please join us on our deep dive into the source of some of poetry’s most mysterious powers.