The origins of Poetry Class “Verse by verse” date back to the year 2002-2003 in the Creative Writing Workshops of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante. It is made up of a group of poetry lovers who meet to study and analyze poets and their work, as well as to read poems. It is conducted by Lecturer Emilia Gómez García. In 2010, she accepted the assignment suggested by the management of the Permanent University to organize a recital in honour of the poet Miguel Hernández in the centenary of his birth.

This year of intense and strict daily work, in which we proceed to the study, analysis and, finally, the selection of poems in the different poetic phases of the poet, introduced the Poetry Class into a creative and solidarity stage. Ten recitals were performed in Alicante and other cities of the province and we adopted then the name of “Group of Poetry of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante”. The recital carried out in the Sede on 21st May 2012 to mark the occasion of the World Poetry Day was outstanding. We included poems in Spanish, English, French, Italian, Rumanian and Catalan in our program. The centenary of the publication of “Campos de Castilla”, written by Antonio Machado, was held in 2012, in honour to his work and its meaning in the History of Poetry in Spain. We decided then to adopt the final name “Poetry Class VERSE by VERSE”,   because it refers to the nature of the work of the Poetry Class, and it also combines very well that nature with the expression of the impact of Machado.

Poetry Class has gone on with the weekly work of study and recital of the poems chosen by all of us. The aim is to work on the phonic nature (vocalization, classic metrics, free verse, rhythm, accentuation and intonation) of poems with full rigor and the humble search of recitative perfection. They enjoy the marked aim of sharing with the rest the work on POETRY. Recitals are made up of poems that go from the concept of classic metrics to the rhythm of the free verse of the poetry of the 20th Century and present times, even with poems written by the poets of our poetry class. Every recitalist has in common, apart from being students of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante, their love for poetry. Besides, throughout those years, they spared no effort to consolidate this poetry class, conducted by the academic, expert and generous management of Lecturer Emilia Gómez.

Poetry and music are closely related. “Poetry is, above all music”, the great poet Verlaine said, and this musical nature of poetry is stressed by the different musical artists and interpreters that have accompanied the recitals of the Poetry Class “Verse by Verse”. 

In such complex times as those of the second decade of the 21st Century, poetry, music, and art all in all, are a way of resistance and refuge. Poetry Class “Verse by Verse” tries, in a clear, beautiful and committed way, to enrich society and provide hope and future with SOLIDARITY POETRY, which this class would like to share with everybody.