Poetry Writing Exercise: “Don’t Be Afraid: Self-Elegy or Self-Celebration” for Master Class I Have Been a Pleasure: On the Self-Elegy and Celebration

Today, before a reading, I will teach a poetry master class at Warren County Community College called I Have Been a Pleasure: On the Self-Elegy and Celebration. With a handout, we will begin by considering and reconsidering the definitions of elegy, praise poems, and ode from Edward Hirsch’s A Poet’s Glossary, making connections between each of these forms and their motivations, and then reading the following poems:

1. “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman
2. “For the Anniversary of My Death” by W.S. Merwin
3. “On Leaving the Body to Science” by Claudia Emerson
4. “Mummy of a Lady Named Jemutesonekh” by Thomas James
5. “Elegy for My Sadness” by Chen Chen
6. “Beyoncé Prepares a Will” by Morgan Parker
7. “Someday I’ll Love Roger Reeves” by Roger Reeves
8. “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” by Ocean Vuong

 

Writing Exercise: “Don’t Be Afraid: Self-Elegy or Self-Celebration”

1. Title your poem “For the Anniversary of My Death (After Merwin),” “Elegy for My Sadness (After Chen),” “[Your Name] Prepares a Will (After Parker),” or “Someday I’ll Love [Your Name.”
2. Free-write a poem borrowing the dramatic situation from one of the poems we have read today, using a similar title in homage to that poet. A couple of considerations:
   1. Will you write to yourself as a you or as an I?
   2. Are you lamenting or celebrating yourself?
   3. Is this a poem of greeting or goodbye?
   4. If you are writing a self-elegy, are you elegizing your whole self or only a part? A time period? A sense of self? A place? Another person?
   5. If you are writing a self-celebration, are you performing the act of Narcissus looking into the pool or is there something more potent beneath the surface at which you’re really looking?
3. Share.