Finding Your Subject
Dan Brown
These are tough times for subjects in poetry. Many current poems don't even have a subject (and that can be putting it charitably). The danger in subjectlessness was seen long ago by Frost, who spoke of “undirected associations” that kick a poet “from one chance suggestion to another in all directions as of a hot afternoon in the life of a grasshopper.” In this workshop we’ll consider the subject of subjects in poetry. What is a subject? (Not a simple question where poetry is concerned.) What can a subject do for a poem? How can we facilitate the finding of poetic subjects? We’ll explore these questions—central ones for poets, yet little considered—in connection with poems from the formal canon and poems-in-prospect brought to the table by workshop participants.
