Cahal Dallat writes:
There are three main sets of rules by which you can run your workshop:
Within any of these formats, generally accepted conventions may be practiced.
BLIND CRITICISM
- everyone arrives with X copies of a poem without names on;
- these are handed out in turn;
- someone is chosen to read the next poem;
- everyone discusses it without knowing which one of the workshop members has
written it.
This method hopes to achieve the fairest and most open kind of criticism, without
being prejudiced by whose work you usually like or dislike. It answers the basic
question of – what would you think of this poem if you saw it in a magazine
or anthology it was written by someone whose name you don't recognise and whose
work you don't know.
ROUND ROBIN – or what we call a Round Robin
although the term really means something else:
- everyone brings X copies of their poem
- each poem is read in turn and discussed.
Doesn't have the secretiveness of the BLIND CRITICISM method but also avoids
the guessing games that the first method can give rise to.
SELECTED POET – the arrangement we normally
use at THE POETRY WORKSHOP – where each evening (in our case once a month)
consists of discussing about six poems written by one member of the group and
posted out to each of the other members a week in advance (well, sometimes,
anyway!):
- Disadvantages: your poems are only discussed once every X months which if
you've 10 members – and allowing for summer holidays etc. – you might
not get your work read for a whole year.
- Advantages: poems are considered in advance, considered collectively, and
criticised in the context of other work you've brought to the group in the past.
You can also bring one long poem rather than five or six "normal"
poems, which you can't do in the other formats above. But you need to be in
it for the long run and be prepared to give more than you get sometimes: so
those who are only interested in having their own work praised are unlikely
to stay the course.
GENERALLY APPLICABLE CONVENTIONS OF WORKSHOP PRACTICE
- Allow enough time for each poem… divide your session by the number of poems you have to discuss… with one member keeping time.
- Have each poem read aloud, either by the poet or by someone else… even when the poet is known it can be useful to hear other readings.
- Allow some time for reflection after the reading. (Some workshops will have the poem read again after the "pause for thought" and before discussion starts).
- Discussion will start when someone has something to say. Sometimes it's easiest to start with little points of detail or specific things you've liked rather than attempt a total understanding of – or comment on – the poem. Sometimes it's so good – or so awful – that you might want to start with an overall opinion.
- The poet never speaks during the discussion. This is to allow the workshop to explore the poem exactly as if the poet was not there: even if their interpretation of the poem, or certain parts of it, is nowhere near what the poet intended, they must be allowed to struggle on.
- People can change their minds – about a word or phrase or line or about the whole poem – as they hear other group members discussing it. Often when you're reading a poem you don't know what you think of it until you've read it several times: the workshop discussion can be a bit like that.
- When discussion has ended – or time is up – the poet is allowed to comment – on whether the criticism was useful, to explain any points that the members got stuck on, to answer any questions.