Product Description

This is a positive, practical handbook packed with advice, exercises and information. Beginning with a definition of what makes poetry, the author goes on to describe the different forms, how and what to start writing, finding an audience, and getting published. John Whitworth encourages the poet to write from experience and by showing poet's drafts demonstrates how the process from tentative start to finished poem is achieved. This new edition has been revised throughout and includes new chapters on poetry on the Internet, performance poetry and poetry festivals.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #168594 in Books
• Published on: 2006-03-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

About the Author
John Whitworth has had nine volumes of poetry published and has also put together an anthology of poems for Faber & Faber. He teaches creative writing at Kent University.

Customer Reviews

A poetry cookbook for gourmets and mie and chip merchants.
WRITING POETRY BY JOHN WHITWORTH , should, in my opinion be sub-titled: a poetry cookbook for gourmets and pie and chip merchants. There is much to savour, and much to mull over and all of it flavoured with Whitworth's bouncing enthusiasm for his subject. His knowledge and understanding of poetry are apparent in every line of the book, but it is never unpalatable. Each section is laid out clearly and the information it contains is easily assimilated. Not once did I stop and think, 'What's he going on about.' The explanations were so succinct that I was eager to try out the exercises. It is true that Whitworth covers a lot of well trodden ground: Metaphor, Similes, Allegory, Rhyme, near Rhyme and Alliteration, but there is nothing stale about it. In fact his unique insight into their workings; and many poetic recipes leave us hungry for more. Chapter 8, Counting your Feet is the most digestible explanation of metre I've come across. You can chew the meat from the bones, no Renee's needed. If you want to write poetry this book is an essential.

Readable and informative
It helps to get this book in perspective. It is not the greatest guide to poetry that there ever was. It is a chatty guide for people who might like to write a bit of poetry now and then, and are worried about whether they are doing the right thing, using the right words, and whether they will get laughed at for trying. The guy comes across as knowing his stuff, and keeps the tone nice and light. The exercises aren't too dry and stuffy, the critique of historical poets shows a grasp of the field. He gives personal experiences as a reference point for particular sections - writing for commission for example - that don't come across as being smug or ego driven.

It is aimed at the novice writer and more experienced writers might find a lot of it rather superficial. It isn't the longest book in the world either, but I've never been on a writers course or read a book about it, and this laid to rest some issues I was having with blank verse. So, bearing in mind that it does what it says on the tin and no more, I'd give this a big thumbs up for aspiring poets out there.

Extremely helpful
This book contains some absolutely marvellous tips for an aspiring poet. Every possible linguistic technique is covered here. Although there is a great deal of advice on creative tricks for free verse (with explanations of prosopopeia, metaphor, alliteration, onomatopoeia and anthropology etc.) one also finds a wonderfully detailed analysis of more regular prosodic structures. I was particularly interested by the exploration of inherent sub-divisions within dactylic hexameter and the idea of introducing tertiary modulations within the archaic stress pattern of the ottava. Personally I have largely made the decision to express myself via anapaestic metre, although (as a concession to the irrepressible nature of free-wheeling creativity) I may occasionally allow myself the luxury of a few iambic feet within certain stanzas.

Anyway, if you are looking to indulge your artistic side via the medium of poetic verse, this is an excellent way to unlock the vault of locutionary possibilities. Since I read this guide, I have been permitted to gaze upon a whole new vista of potential for self-expression. As the author says, writing poetry can be an extremely cathartic way of dealing with life's troubles. Only today, I chose to offload the most intimate of my inner-torments into a new stanza- structured around a traditionally-inspired 'quintain' (combining anapaestic trimeter with a couplet of bimeter) plus an additional coda:


There once was a man from Doncaster
Who had never been much of a long-laster
When in bed with his old dear
He'd soon teeter somewhat near
So he'd aim at her face and then blast 'er!

Though his wife said "You're lame"
Rather, she was to blame
For constantly telling him to thrust faster!