Product Description

Demystifies the world of poetry, exploring poetic forms and traditions which can at first seem bewildering and shows how any reader can gain more pleasure from poetry.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25321 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Review
'If you have forgotten what "sprung rhythm" or a Spenserian stanza is, you may use Poetry: The Basics as a reference book, or you may allow Jeffrey Wainwright to guide you from room to room through the house of poetry essentials. In either case, you will find his book reliable, illuminating, and studded with brilliant examples.'
- Billy Collins

'Whether writing about Paradise Lost or the lyrics of Nick Cave, Jeffrey Wainwright is an inspiring and engaging critic of poetry. There are pleasures and insights to be found on every age of this immensely readable book.' - Stephen Regan, Royal Holloway, University of London

'This is a creative and inspiring handbook. It shows the reader how to appreciate poetry and how to compose it, ready to reclaim for it some degree of specialness in language and to make that accessible.' - Bernard O'Donoghue, winner of the Whitbread Prize for Poetry, 1995

'Welcoming, entertaining and, incidentally, wonderfully instructive'

- Michael Schmidt, Editor of PN Review

From the Back Cover
How do I read a poem? Do I really understand poetry?
This comprehensive guide demystifies the world of poetry, exploring poetic forms and traditions which can at first seem bewildering. Showing how any reader can gain more pleasure from poetry, it looks at the ways in which poetry interacts with the language we use in our everyday lives and explores how poems use language and form to create meaning.
Drawing on examples ranging from Chaucer to children's rhymes, Cole Porter to Carol Ann Duffy, and from around the English-speaking world, it looks at aspects including:
* how technical aspects such as rhythm and measures work
* how different tones of voice affect a poem
* how poetic language relates to everyday language
* how different types of poetry work, from sonnets to free verse
* how the form and 'space' of a poem contributes to its meaning.
Poetry: The Basics is an invaluable and easy to read guide for anyone wanting to get to grips with reading and writing poetry.

About the Author
Jeffrey Wainwright has taught poetry for many years in universities and is currently Professor of English at Manchester Metropolitan University. His work has been included in several anthologies, including (1982) and (1998)