The Volksuniversiteit regio Eindhoven offers a poetry course starting in October. The sessions run for six Tuesdays. If you like to read poetry and discuss ideas with others, this is a course for you. If you want opportunities to speak English, this course is for you, too.
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.
Duffy
In this series of six 120-minute lessons we will look at the poetry of British poet Carol Ann Duffy. This poet chooses to “use simple words, but in a complicated way”, as she claims. Her poems are tender, fierce, tongue-in-cheek, compassionate, and honest, covering a wide range of themes. An expert ventriloquist, she creates an array of voices to present the world through speakers as diverse as a taxi driver during the Thatcher era, the wife of king Midas, a native American after the sale of Manhattan, or Penelope with mixed feelings about Odysseus.
Because you will examine very carefully how Duffy uses language and how 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: Tuesday evenings starting 5 October. For a full lists of dates, check the site of the Volksuniversiteit.
Time: 19:00 to 21:00 hrs.
