The Volksuniversiteit regio Eindhoven offers a poetry course these first few months of the new year. The sessions run for six Wednesdays. The first already starts on 18 January, so you will need to sign up soon.
Greta Timmers (1952), who runs the course, has been an educator all her working life, the larger part of which she spent at the International School of Eindhoven (ISE), teaching English language, literature and theory of knowledge at the pre-university level. Recently retired, she misses the exchange of ideas that literature can bring, as well as the connection with people from diverse backgrounds and with diverse experiences.
She offers courses in poetry since most poems can be read and discussed in the time available – a practical reason – but also because there is such a range of possible approaches; poems connect through their authors, their times, their genre, their themes, their voices -the possibilities are legion. The keyword for this course is enjoyment. Shared enjoyment.
Heaney
In this course, you will discover how Nobel prize-winning Irish poet Heaney uses language and images to (re)create experience. Although no two readers read the same poem, you will see how his poetry can speak across space and time because it touches on experiences we all share. In Heaney’s case, these are family roots, being rooted, a sense of place and individual and national culture and history.
“…between clear blue and cloud/between haystack and sunset sky/between oak tree and slated roof/I had my existence. I was there./ Me in the place and the place in me.”
Because you will examine very carefully how Heaney uses language and how his language depends on context to be fully understood, this is a course for those who enjoy sharing ideas about poetry, as well as for those who welcome an opportunity to strengthen or extend their command of English.
Come as you are
This is a standalone course; there is no expectation of prior knowledge or homework, although opportunities to read further will be suggested.
Days: Wednesday evenings starting 18 January. For a full lists of dates, check the site of the Volksuniversiteit.
Time: 19:00 to 21:00 hrs.
If you like to register for the course, please click here.
