Work made during the Poetry workshop on Saturday 4th October 2025
Eight people aged from 10 to 58 gathered at Eagle Lab in Southampton for a Poetry workshop inspired by Jane Austen. Springboarding from Jane Austen’s interest in words and in social commentary, we started to explore contemporary responses to a series of prompts through a very accessible approach to poetry.
Participants began by writing ‘acrostic’ poems, using key words (either their first name or My Story) to give the first letter of a different word or line that together would form a poem. This helped everyone to feel that they could write a poem, no matter if they’d had experience of doing this before or not.
Each person then chose at random one ‘virtue’ or word with a positive connotation or value, and one ‘vice’ or word with a more negative meaning. This was inspired by Jane Austen’s contrasting word novel titles, such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’.
Everyone wrote at least one poem inspired by their contrasting pairs of words. People could choose their own poetic forms; some asked for suggestions of forms to use that might give their ideas more shape. Having shared their work, participants then chose either to make another poem, or to write up their favourite poem of the session with some decoration, to be included in the exhibition.
‘I am learning to use my voice for good, to speak my truth and speak up for injustice.
My poem shows my struggle to balance love and peace with my journey to speaking my mind.’
‘I love creation. I’ve had this in my diary for weeks – it’s an opportunity to make and share. I walked in unsure of what to expect, but everyone was so lovely. I had so much fun – the prompts were really helpful and I enjoyed sharing with everyone.’
‘I got the words ‘stupidity’ and ‘wholeheartedness’, and was recommended the format where each line contains a word from the previous line.
My thinking was to go from stupidity and transform it into related words using ‘hearted’ words as connective tissue.
The design is meant to symbolise a coin ie love and hate are two sides of the same coin.’
‘I wrote 3 things, but the one I chose to write up neatly for the exhibition was about my struggles with identity and dissociation: trying to make a name for myself and be someone I’m proud of while resenting some of the ways mental illness affects me.’
‘I came to support my daughter, having no confidence in my ability to do poetry. I really enjoyed myself.
Thank you.’
‘I came in open to doing poetry with no preconceptions. I picked the words ‘ineptness’ and ‘making a difference’ at random, but they really spoke to me. I enjoyed the opportunity to write something uplifting to myself.
I really enjoyed this session! I would definitely come again!’
‘I loved having the challenge of writing about two contrasting words I’d chosen at random. I made an acrostic poem from my two words, I really liked the idea that the negativity of defeat could be transformed into something so positive and open, coming from curiosity.’
Your Stories is supported by Southampton Forward, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Foyle Foundation as part of Jane Austen 250.
Supported by:
