From Room to Tenement: The Sonnet & The Sonnet Sequence, George Szirtes Recording & 19/10/25

The sonnet seems to be a remarkably flexible form. What is the magic of it? The rules are simple enough: the sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines that in today’s terms may or may not rhyme, may or may not employ iambic pentameters, that may or may not change after the eighth line, and may or may not employ a Shakespearian twist in the last two lines. That’s a lot of freedom. All the same, it maintains its identity as a sonnet because, one way or the other, it carries the historical experience of the form in its very existence.

We might perhaps think of it as a small feeling and thinking space, a room full of noises, a box full of blended air. And one sonnet may be joined to another to form a sequence of rooms or blended airs to produce something bigger. That is the adventure we are going to explore.

This is a two-part workshop: two sessions two weeks apart. In the first session, we'll consider different approaches to sonnets and sonnet sequences, and you'll be given homework to write three to four sonnets in a sequence before the second session. In the second session, there's an opportunity for George to hear your homework and further discuss approaches to sonnet sequences. (We'll try our best to hear the work, or at least a reporting back, from everyone as much as feasible.)

This two-part workshop was developed after suggestions from our marvelous workshop participants.

I've added some tickets if you would like to hear the recording of the first workshop on 5th October and come to the live workshop on 19th October: There is homework which is due on 16th October.

Sundays, 5th & 19th of October 

 10am UK // 5pm Perth // 8pm Sydney// 7.30 Adelaide // Brisbane 7pm // Darwin 6.30pm

2 sessions of 2 hours long each - but please include an extra 30mins at the end in case we run on on 19th Oct.

Times on the homepage of this site are in London, UK Timezone, but when you add the event to your calendar it should be correct for your local time zone.

You can check your timezone against London UK time here: https://greenwichmeantime.com/time-gadgets/time-zone-converter/

Cost £50 GBP (with cost effective exchange via STRIPE)

George Szirtes won the 2024 King’s Gold Medal for Poetry which recognises his significant body of work and contribution to literature. He was born in Hungary, came to England as a refugee and trained as an artist. His twelfth book of poems, Reel (2004) won the T S Eliot Prize for which he has been twice shortlisted since. His latest is Fresh Out of the Sky. (2021). His memoir The Photographer at Sixteen (2019) was awarded the James Tait Black Prize in 2020. He is a co-winner of the International Booker translator’s prize, as well as of numerous others. His book for children, In the Land of Giants (2015) won the CLPE Prize for best book of poetry for children. His own books have been translated into various languages including Italian, German, Chinese, Romanian and Hungarian. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1982. 

Zoom link and materials will be sent by email at least 2 days prior. If you don’t receive it get in touch with me.

More events here https://www.cathdrake.com

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