The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism - Hardcover

Lennard, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198711549 ISBN 13: 9780198711544

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1996

Synopsis

This text provides a practical guide to the poet's craft. There are chapters on metre, form, layout, lineation, punctuation, rhyme, diction, syntax, history, biography, and gender, as well as one on exams which includes sample essays by undergraduates. At the end of every chapter each topic is applied to the same poem, Nobel-winner Derek Walcott's "Nearing Forty", building up a full technical reading. Critical and scholarly terms are italicized and clearly explained, both in the text and in glossaries. Notes and quotations are supplemented by detailed reference to both the Oxford Anthology of English Literature and the Norton Anthology of Poetry and there is a substantial "Suggestions for Further Reading" section.

About this title

Review:

Lennard succeeds in being as exhaustive as he can possibly be... (Caroline Bertoneche, Universite de Provence)

Very readable... gives and excellent overview of poetry in English and will explain rhythm, metre and style. (The Observer, February 2006)

About the Author:

John Lennard is a Fellow and Director of Studies in English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0198711549
• ISBN 13: 9780198711544
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 237