The Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers [Hardcover]

William Packard (Author), Karl Shaprio (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 1992

Poet, novelist, scholar, translator, playwright, and teacher, William Packard has known every side of a writer's life. As founder and editor of The New York Quarterly, a national magazine devoted to the craft of poetry, he reads some 50,000 poems each year-most of them sadly deficient in sound, metrics, form, voice, and quality. This book is written to help poets address the central concerns of their craft and art.

Lively, inspiring, opinionated, and sometimes curmudgeonly, The Art of Poetry Writing covers a broad range of topics, both technical and personal, that all poets need to consider:

-Poetic devices and diction
-Verse forms and free verse
-Rhyme and metrics
-Creative vision and revision
-The benefits and problems of workshops and writing classes
-30 writing challenges to develop form and style and technique
-When to seek publication-and when not to
-What to read while writing
-The life of the poet, including keeping a journal, giving readings, applying for grants, and more.

Remarks by and excerpts from the work of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden, Stevens, Moore, Thomas, Ginsberg, Sexton, Plath, Dickey, Bukowski, Ashbery, and dozens of other poets make this an essential companion for students, teachers and anyone who writes or reads poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"By now the number of how-to books about poetry is beyond count, yet there is hardly a classic among them. Packard's book qualifies." --Karl Shapiro

"William Packard surely must be one of the great editors of our time." --James Dickey

About the Author

William Packard is the author of The Poet's Dictionary, an A-Z reference of poetic devices, and The Poet's Craft, a collection of interviews with poets originally published in The New York Quarterly. He has been a professor of poetry at New York University for over twenty-five years, working with thousands of students; in his work with The New York Quarterly he has interviewed hundreds of practicing poets on the issues discussed in this book. He lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1 edition (June 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031207641X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312076412
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #329,242 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice technical reference, February 11, 2001

By 

A Critic in the Best Sense (London, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers (Hardcover)

I found that this book had little to say to the 'soul' of the poet but a tremendous amount to say about the craft. I first picked this book up several years ago, and since then the chapter on 'Verse Forms' is something that has stayed with me -- whenever I wonder just what a 'sestina' or a 'villanelle' is I pick up this book. I have also found the example poems Packard uses to be unusual and therefore interesting and occasionally inspiring. It is a reference and it's not a 'feel-good' book, but it's one I value on my shelves, and which I've given to other people who want a little more discipline in their poems than free verse provides.

16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A critical look at modern poetry., November 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers (Hardcover)

On the dust jacket of this book, the word "curmudgeonly" is used. Don't bother to look it up, just read on and you'll get the idea. He begins with an overview of the history of poetry - very interesting and very informative - and then moves on to discuss the pros and cons of various schools of thought. Again, interesting and informative. He is however, quite merciless in his criticism of the things he dislikes - his section on Poetry Workshops is a good example. Unfortunately, you get the impression that he doesn't have much time for us ordinary human beings who find writing poetry a satisfying experience without actually aspiring to the Pulitser Prize. And while it is true that he addresses issues like 'when to seek publication', 'how to apply for grants' etc etc, he doesn't actually give you much information!

A good book as an overview of the history and purpose of poetry, with some excellent exercises ("triggers"). Not however a book for someone starting out in poetry, or for anyone who has even the slightest doubt about their own abilities as a poet.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Writing Bible, March 3, 2006

By 

Amelia Bedelia "Amelia" (Mamaroneck, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers (Hardcover)

This book was everything I could have wanted; it is comprehensive in its listing of genres, forms, poetry devices and history, and has some good psychological pointers about the writer's life and the need to allow yourself solitude and time away from workshop madness. Its lists of books to read while writing, before writing and just plain writing literacy are superb, and its "writing challenges" (exercises for writing poems when you're stumped) are super. I'm working my way through them, day by day.