Close reading Terrance Hayes

Close Reading the Poetry of Terrance Hayes

Sundays, 12 April and 19 April 2026

I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison,
Part panic closet, a little room in a house set aflame.
I lock you in a form that is part music box, part meat
Grinder to separate the song of the bird from the bone.
I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold
While your better selves watch from the bleachers …

(From ‘American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassins’, 2017)

Terrance Hayes was born in 1971 in South Carolina. He was poetry editor for the New York Times Magazine (2017-18), has taught at many universies, and is currently Professor of English at New York University. His poetry collections have won many prizes.

Powerful, intelligent and formally inventive, Terrance Hayes’ poems ask radical questions about culture, race, masculinity and global culture.

In an interview in 2013, Hayes said that his poetry tries to be like music, in this sense:

I’m chasing a kind of language that can be unburdened by people’s expectations. I think music is the primary model – how close can you get this language to be like music and communicate feeling …?

In these 2-hour sessions, Dr Mariah Whelan will guide students through a series of close reading exercises to explore the poems’ technical prowess and arresting ideas. Together we will observe, analyse and discuss the how the poems work as artistic objects, focusing on issues of language, sound, form and imagery.

An ideal class for those wanting to work on their skills of close reading.

For more information about Terrance Hayes, see Poetry Foundation and Terrance Hayes’ website

Course fees (include VAT at 20%)

£86.00 Full price
£80.00 Students on a low income
£80.00 CAMcard holders

Dates

Sundays, 12 April and 19 April 2026, 2.00-4.00 pm British Time (GMT)

To book, please click on the image below.