The Contemporary Long Lyric Poem: A Craft Essay/Course
The Contemporary Long Lyric Poem: An Impossibility?
an essay
Joseph Fasano
NOTE: This essay grew out of a graduate seminar I taught at Columbia University. It is particularly aimed at poets who are interested in writing long lyric poems, a genre which Poe famously called an impossibility. My own experience writing my book-length poem Vincent compelled me to develop definite ideas about how to create unity in even the most seemingly fragmented long lyric works, and I have wanted to share those ideas with students—and with you. This essay, which grew out of my lecture notes, will provide you with all the major ideas discussed in that graduate-level course.