“Poetry,” wrote Robert Frost, “is a way of taking life by the throat.” From its origins in oral tradition and tribal lore, as well as its role in incantatory spiritual practice, poetry has carried in its rhythms the deep longings of humanity. In this course, students will dip into this current, writing poems with a view to aspects of craft modeled by poets in a diverse range of voices and writing traditions. In our workshops of one another’s poems, we will consider the relationship between content and form, as well as what differentiates poetry from other writing genres. Through experiments in received forms (traditional forms such as the sonnet and sestina), as well as more contemporary approaches (for example, writing in free verse or in prose poems), students will move toward the development of a distinctive voice and style.