Why Poetry: An Impassioned Call for the Necessity of Reading Poems―A Guide to Finding Meaning and Purpose
Language: English
Published by Ecco, 2018
- Softcover
- Used

Seller: Goodwill of Western and Northern CT, Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A.Goodwill of Western and Northern CT
AbeBooks seller since July 30, 2026
Condition: Used - Good
£ 3.44
Quantity: 1 available
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All pages and cover are intact including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May include "From the library of" labels. Shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Item may be missing bundled media.
Seller Inventory # WNCTV.0062343084.G
- Title
- Why Poetry: An Impassioned Call for the Necessity of Reading Poems―A Guide to Finding Meaning and Purpose
- Author
- Zapruder, Matthew
- Publisher
- Ecco
- Publication year
- 2018
- Condition
- good
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0062343084
- ISBN 13
- 9780062343086
An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry's accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder
In Why Poetry, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. He takes on what it is that poetry--and poetry alone--can do. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with a poem.
Zapruder explores what poems are and how we can read them so that we can, as Whitman wrote, "possess the origin of all poems" without the aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading poetry can help us to lead our lives with greater meaning and purpose.
Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through Zapruder's personal experience of coming to the form, Why Poetry is engaging and conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being mistaken for knowledge. While providing a simple reading method for approaching poems and illuminating concepts like associative movement, metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
MATTHEW ZAPRUDER is the author of four collections of poetry. His poetry, essays, and translations have appeared in publications including The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Tin House, and The Believer. An associate professor in the Saint Mary's College of California MFA program and English department, he is also editor at large at Wave Books and, from 2016 to 2017, was the editor of the poetry page of the New York Times Magazine. He lives in Oakland, California, with his wife and son.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Goodwill of Western and Northern CT
Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since July 30, 2026
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