The instructor is so hilarious, thought-provoking, and mindful of how much we can assimilate and digest in a single sitting. I never took the course for granted and struggled for a day or two with some of the poems but still completed it way ahead of time and came out with a renewed sense of interest in poetry. I would say this course is perfect for both budding (though you'll need to put in a little homework on the side!) and seasoned poets. Thanks to the CalArts staff and my fellow peers who gave me so much motivation and inspiration.

In short presentations, Doug manages to give insightful tools to crafting a fine-tuned poem. He makes learning about rhyme, metaphor and scansion uncomplicated while he hones your focus, so your writing can surprise you. The class exercises and community feedback help create a classroom of learners. I was inspired. For the first time I understood iambic pentameter, trochees and scansion. The best tool was learning how to revise, how to look for the turn in the poem and expand that turn into something unforeseen.

I have learned new things in this course and have thoroughly enjoyed the process.I have also written some poems in the process and I am glad that I got to know where I was wrong and where I was right.I also had the opportunity to know how to improve my poems which is wonderful.

I would like to thank my instructor in this course for making learning exciting.I would also like all my classmates for patiently giving reviews and waiting for one at the same time.

Thank you CALARTS and thank you Coursera!!

I loved this course. I've been wanting to learn about how to write poetry and I thought a college course would be too much and overwhelming to take on, but this professor made the subject very accessible and even after the first lesson I learned something that I could apply. I think my poetry writing has improved from this course. The professor is also very entertaining and highly engaging during his videos. It is obvious that he is passionate about the subject and prepares for the videos.

What an ENGAGING class. Doug (Dr. Kearney) was fun, and managed to not only get the basics of poetry well defined in short periods of time, but also brought in more complicated assignments that pushed me as a writer to another level. He also prioritized poets of color, which I appreciated. I know my poetry will grow and develop because of this class. I also looked up the writer's poetry - I'm fascinated by his form. Poetry experimentation to the next level. I'm going to dive further into this.

I loved this! It was such a beautiful course, the structure and the weekly lessons were awesome. What attracted me was the teaching style of Sir Doug. He was funny when needed and attentive while reading poems. I always wanted to attend poetry classes where we would analyse the poems and this class was so effective. I was very much excited for the lessons and completed the course in less than 12 days and learned a lot. This is what learning with joy looks like. Loved the course!

I see in some reviews that people find Mr Kearney's dramatics a bit annoying... I do concur with that in some ways, the pretend avoidance of words coming in, the vocal intonations, and playing around... but I also think that his way of teaching is engaging, rich and effective. I have learned things without effort because the examples were well chosen and well analysed and I have added a few new tools to my poetry toolbox. I’m happy with that return on my time on a free course.

hi there, was interesting and nice to be able to put some poetry down for people to see . also seeing how much talent people and lecturers possess.thankyou for that and showing us how to narrow our poetry and for us to really look at it properly and by doing that look at our selves inside more deeply. reallyto good. it gives us a sense of confidence and a sense of belonging and warmth in these trying times. so thankyou to the lecturer god bless and hope for another session

Being a writer who wrote as a hobby it is wonderful to learn so many new things about poetry that I couldn't have learned by myself sitting and writing what I was always writing. Learning about revision was a great experience but the best experience was the peer review . It is because of those peer reviews that I could improve and improvise on writing . A big thanks to calarts and coursera and very big thanks to Douglas Kearney sir for giving his time for this course.

Great instructions. Very interesting method(s) of learning. Reviewing peers assignment was quite hard at first but was in itself a good learning experience.

Loved the entire course. Hope you have a follow up course. Appreciated the humours approach by the Prof.

Only thing I found that could change or improve is the posting poems or questions for discussion where exactly we post them. Instructions to that would have been helpful,

All in all great course. Thank you

This course was fabulous. The professor was engaging, the exercises helpful, the quizzes relevant to the topics covered, and the enthusiasm of the participants contagious. I will keep using the prompts and techniques I learned in this course in the future. If Douglas Kearney comes out with additional courses on writing and revising, I will sign up for those as well. This course was thoughtfully planned, and I now have additional resources to use as a poet.

This course has broad appeal for both beginners and those wanted to jump back into a creative process after a block or the damn pandemic and its many obstacles to creative relaxation. I applaud the professor's ability to be both fun and also academic, depending on what he wants to talk about and how he approaches it. Great diversity in the works he chose to parse. All in all I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would and it broke a three year block for me.

This was an excellent course. It taught me quite a bit and made me understand more clearly stuff I peviously learnt. Doug was a wonderful facilitator and lecturer -- equally inspiring, amusing, informative and enthusiastic. The course took me into deeper areas of the craft that I had expected to go on such a short course. It is worthy of being a major course in a degree programme. Thanks to all concerned for designing this challenging, yet enjoyable, course.

This course introduced me to a few aspects of poetry I was not familiar with. It also has inspired me to continue the pursuit of writing poetry. I find that I have one main style of writing poetry, but sometimes I drift to others. This course helped me to know that is perfectly fine to do so. I do not have a lot of time to go off on discussion boards so I am grateful that wasn't a big requirement. I did enjoy the interaction of peer review on submitted works.

Excellent course! Douglas Kearney is an impressive teacher. His style is informative and engaging. The material provided and poems included are also beautiful. The peer reviews were one of my favorite parts, as I got to interact with fellow poets- novices and professionals. This course opened up a whole new world of poetry for me; now I've decided to do more than just a rough, first draft! A big 'thank you' to Mr. Kearney, the moderators and fellow poets.

I am but four weeks into this course and I love it, What appears to be simple guidance turns out to be quite powerful, and the Professor is excellent in general, and very, very good with this medium. The prompts are fabulous and surprising - not just simple phrases, but based in building capabilities with poetic forms. Even metaphors and similes, for example, mean more in the context he creates for the learner. I will revisit this review when I am done.

Especially enjoyed the part that stressed revision, in which Mr. Kearney talked about the importance of letting the poem take you where it wants to go and the value of freeing yourself from the constraints of where you think the poem should go. He also gave some techniques for listening to and looking at where your poem is heading.

I enjoyed the readings as well, especially the poem by Harryette Mullen. The prompts were helpful in backup up the lessons.

Great experience. The course was very well done from a technical and systems perspective. The online experience and tools worked really well, easy to understand and use. The instructions for using the tools were clear, especially the workshop and assignments portion. The instructor, Doug Kearney, was effective, funny and very on-point. Overall, five starts. I look forward to doing another one. Oh yeah, my poetry improved as a result!

It was an incredibly insightful experience. I have been writing poems for as long as I can remember, but through this workshop, I learned about the intricacies of poetry in-depth. I stepped out of my comfort zone and wrote in styles I had never explored before. A big thank you to Douglas Kearney for this course and his creative and engaging teaching style. I can't wait to use the learnings from this course to enhance my work going forward.

As someone who is has no experience in creative writing classes, this course was an excellent introduction to writing poetry. While it was accessible to a beginner, I could see more advanced students of poetry being able to benefit from the course as well. This is because the prompts and assignments allow you to work at your own levels of experience and are very user friendly in that regard. I could not recommend this course highly enough!

This has been one of my favorite courses so far. Douglas Kearney is such an amazing professor. He explains the subjects in a fun but yet deep way. It has been an honor to get to now more about poetry alongside his teachings, the works of the amazing American writers mentioned in this course and, of course, through my colleagues' works. I hope I can join future courses taught by Mr. Kearney, online or better yet in person at CalArts.

This is a great course with lots of information about the tools you need when crafting great poetry. I love the weekly writing prompts; they were very helpful in getting me back into the rhythm of writing. The discussion board was also a nice play to hang out and exchange thoughts about poetry and to give and receive critique from my peers. I recommend this course to anyone, at any level, who is interested in writing poetry.

This instructor really brought his A game when it came to being engaging in the video segments. I usually get bored with the video modules in these course, but not here! The assignments were fun and inspiring. Sharpened Visions is an outstanding "get your feet wet" opportunity for those who consider themselves non-writers (like me) and I would imagine to be a useful exercise for actual writers of all stripes -- poets or not.

This professor is very lively and makes the learning entertaining. I can understand vocabulary words much easier the way Mr. Kearney presents them. Thus far, his writing prompts have been quite unique and very fun to do. This is a challenge for me personally as I am not well-versed in writing or understanding poetry but I have a great feeling I will have a much better grasp of it by the time I fully complete the course.

The workshop was an eye-opener for me on the themes of abstraction and rhyme-rhythm. Although I knew a bit about rhymes, I learned more about them in the workshop. Equally important, I learned some great tips about how to revise. It's been a great learning. Plus, hugely entertaining. Never a slow moment in the videos :) I'll keep referring to the videos and notes and try out the different things the workshop shares.