Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop
- Free
- Paid certificate
- Beginner
- 8 hours
Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop is a CalArts course built around the idea that the real work of a poem begins after the first draft. Six modules take up the poetic line, abstraction and image, metaphor and other formulas of difference, rhyme, rhythm, and finally revision strategies. Along the way you read modern and contemporary poets to see how lineation, metaphor and rhythm can be used, and misused, deliberately. Feedback comes through a structured peer workshop in which learners critique each other's poems against rubric criteria.
Coursera estimates the modules at one to two hours each, about eight hours in total, on a flexible timetable, and lists the course at beginner level with no prior experience required; the course FAQ says learners typically spend three to five hours a week. The course is flagged as free, so all modules and the workshop are open without payment. A shareable certificate is a paid option with no price shown, and financial aid is listed.
What you’ll learn
- Use the poetic line, abstraction and image deliberately in your own poems
- Work with metaphor, rhyme and rhythm in both formal and free verse
- Analyse contemporary poems to see how their effects are made
- Revise drafts into finished poems using a repeatable process
- Give and receive structured critique in a peer workshop
Who it’s for
New and practising poets who want structured feedback and a revision method; the FAQ says it is designed for writers of all levels.
Syllabus
6 sections as listed on coursera.org.
- Introduction and the Poetic Line 59 min
- Abstraction and Image 59 min
- Metaphor and Other Formulas of Difference 1 h 22 min
- Rhyme 59 min
- Rhythm 2 h 1 min
- Sharpened Poetry: Revision Strategies 2 h 1 min
Instructor
- Douglas Kearney Assistant Professor, Program in Creative Writing, College of Liberal Arts, University of Minnesota, California Institute of the Arts
Course details
- Skills covered
- Peer Review
- Writing and Editing
- Creativity
- Writing
- Language Competency
- Storytelling
- Language Learning
- English Language
- Editing
- Includes
- 6 modules
- Prerequisites
- No prior experience required
- Subtitles
- 24 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.8 out of 5 by 1,886 learners; 152,651 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Coursera (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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