POETRY WORKSHOP
Alison Chisholm
In the preface to the second edition of his collaborative work with Coleridge – Lyrical Ballads – Wordsworth tells us that poetry takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity. When we have had a dramatic or emotionally charged experience, this suggests that it’s a good idea to allow the situation and emotions that surround it to ‘settle’ for a period of time before we can write a balanced poem about it.