How to Teach PoetryMaster ClassIn-Person
Thursday, Apr 10, 2025
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
In partnership with Spitzer Enterprises
416 Kent Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249
In this class, we will explore sensible ways to analyze a poem without killing it, including how to vary critical pressures depending on the poet being read; how to help students enjoy the unteachable pleasures of poetry; and how to include in our teaching the compositional process the poet employed in the poem. We will lighten up on the question “what does a poem mean,” and look closely at how does a poem mean and how does a poem go. We will turn to see the poem not as an act of self-expression, but as a search for an ending. We will read poems old and new, many from the anthology I edited titled Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry. Having a copy with you will put us on the same page.
ENGLISH, LANGUAGE ARTS, POETRY, LITERATURE
Billy Collins
Billy Collins is the author of thirteen books of poetry, his most recent being Water, Water. He has edited three anthologies: Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry, 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day, and Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems about Birds. Collins' poetry has appeared in anthologies, textbooks, and a variety of periodicals, including Poetry, The American Scholar, Harper's, The Paris Review, and The New Yorker. Awarded the first Mark Twain Prize from the Poetry Foundation for humor in poetry, he also was chosen by the New York Public Library to be a “Library Lion." A graduate of Holy Cross College, he received his doctorate from the University of California at Riverside and is a former Distinguished Professor at Lehman College (CUNY). He served two terms as United States Poet Laureate and as New York State Poet. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.