Let's crack poems open and see them for their parts--where are they successful & resonant?  Where are they timid, show weakness, or overflow their banks?  W.D. Snodgrass took 101 acclaimed poems and re-wrote them into what he called De/Compositions--or, good poems gone wrong. Snodgrass recast each poem, line-by-line, until the result looked entirely different from the original. His versions document how artistic choices accumulate, and translate to a transcendent product.  No gesture is too small, no trope too tiny, each choice matters in crafting the sound and sensation of the poem.

Learning Objectives Include:

• Establishing inquiry and introduction via Youtube or other visual platform
• 3 poems de/constrcuted based on abstract vs concrete language, voice and tone, and focus
• Final product, to be determined by class