Teaching Poetry Writing: A Five-Canon Approach

This book is a comprehensive alternative to the full-class workshop approach to poetry writing instruction. In the five-canon approach, peer critique of student poems takes place in online environments, freeing up class time for writing exercises and lessons based on the five canons of classical rhetoric: invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery.

Table Of Contents
1 It Doesn’t Work For Me: A Critique of the Workshop Approach to Teaching Poetry Writing and a Suggestion For Revision
2 Rhetorical Theory as a Basis for Poetry Writing Pedagogy
3 Towards an Art of Poetic Invention
4 Some Specifics about the General: Arrangement
5 Elements of Poetic Style
6 Poetry Writing Instruction and the Forgotten Art of Memory
7 Delivery: Bringing the Words into the World
8 Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackboard Page
9 Conclusion
Index