Poetic Forms for Beginners
Spark your creativity and take your first steps into the world of poetry!
* This course will take place on the video-conferencing platform ZOOM *
Always wanted to write poetry, but not sure where to start? Then this is the course for you! Join us to learn more about the variety and history of poetry and equip yourself with the necessary skills to begin writing your own. On this course we will explore and discuss many forms and modes of poetry and track its evolution into the present – from sonnets to sestinas, free verse to villanelles, lyric to epic, symbolism to surrealism, prose poems to palindromes. We’ll also have a go at writing new work of our own, with in-class prompts designed to tap into your creativity and get you started on the road to becoming a proper poet!
There will be space to write in each workshop, but no feedback on poems from the group; for in-depth discussion and workshopping of your own writing, please join the partner to this course: our Beginners Workshop Group.
5 fortnightly Zoom sessions on Wednesdays, 7–9pm (BST), starts 8 October 2025.
Concessions & Accessibility
To apply for a concession rate, please send relevant documentation showing your eligibility for one of our concessions to [email protected]. Conditions of eligibility are detailed here. If you have any questions or wish to be added to the waiting list of a sold-out course, please email [email protected].
What to Expect
Please check the left hand side of this page for information on how this course works in practice, under the heading ‘Course Style‘. If you’re unsure as to what any of the terms there mean, or if this course is a good fit for you, please visit our What to Expect page which includes some further information on how our courses function.
Image credit: @fotios-photos
About Becky Varley-Winter 
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Becky Varley-Winter’s first full-length poetry collection, Dangerous Enough, was published by Salt in 2023. She has also published a poetry pamphlet, Heroines: On the Blue Peninsula (V. Press, 2019), was longlisted in the National Poetry Competition 2019, won the T. R. Henn and Brewer-Hall Prizes, and appeared in Poetry Review, Magma, Rising, Finished Creatures, and Tentacular, amongst others. Her other publications are a book on modernist poetry and literary fragments, Reading Fragments and Fragmentation in Modernist Literature (Sussex Academic Press, 2018), and a collection of short fiction, BLOOM (Broken Sleep Books, 2021).
"It's given a dedicated safe and supportive space every two weeks just for "me time" to write and think about poems. I like myself more when I'm in that mindset."
Beginners’ Workshop Group
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