This course is now fully booked. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Barry Wood
“Bring the light verse to liquidate my sorrow.” (Gavin Ewart)
The course will focus on a discussion of comic verse and argue that “high seriousness” is not the only requirement for poetry and that comic, or light, verse doesn’t preclude seriousness or skill and innovation. There is, in fact, a long tradition of comic verse in English and the course will concentrate on a selection of work from Eliot, Graves, and Betjeman; Auden, Empson, and Henry Reed; Stevie Smith and Larkin; and more recent poets such as Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy and Sophie Hannah. Sometimes a joke is just a joke; but it can also be a way of dealing with difficult psychological, moral, social, political and even metaphysical experiences, ideas and issues.
Selected texts will be distributed for discussion.
WH Auden, The Oxford Book of Light Verse and
Gavin Ewart The Penguin Book of Light Verse are also recommended.
Day: Thursday Time: 10.30am-12.30
Date: 8 weeks, 3rd May to 14 June 2018, 24 May: Mid-Term Break
Venue:
St.Peter’s House
University Precinct
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9GH
| Price | Concessions | Minimum No. | Maximum No. |
| £65 | 8 | 14 |
Please send your booking form with an accompanying cheque to:
Barry Wood, 12 St. Brannock’s Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester M21 0UP