This original, illuminating, and sometimes quite funny poetry anthology is primarily concerned with a fundamental and familiar question: How can we tell good poetry from bad? To illustrate precisely why these 101 poems, many of them well-loved classics, are so accomplished and remarkable, the prize-winning poet, author, critic, and veteran teacher Snodgrass herein rewrites them—wrongly. De/Compositions tellingly presents these rewrites next to the originals—by poets ranging from William Shakespeare to William Stafford—and thus we can more fully appreciate the artistry of these astonishing poems word by word, line by line, stanza by stanza. This book will appeal to anyone studying the craft and/or creativity that good poems demand.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Neither Yeats nor Stevens, Dickinson, Auden or Shakespeare escapes Pulitzer-winner W.D. Snodgrass's often droll, (intentionally) paltry rewriting in De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Bad. In the classroom, Snodgrass (Heart's Needle) deploys the alternate-universe technique he demonstrates in this teacher's and poet's manual that is, he changes the specific words and syntax but retains the sense, meter and length of various poems and asks his students to compare the two versions. Cummings's "anyone lived in a pretty how town" (here "A certain man lived in a very nice town"), Lowell's "Skunk Hour" ("Raccoon Time") and Dickinson's "I Never Lost As Much but Twice" (simply "I've Lost So Much") each possesses a "particular excellence" that he attempts to "dissolve or drive out," thereby laying bare the elements that make a poem great.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
How can you tell if a poem is good? Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Snodgrass would put it next to a bad one and let the reader judge. To that end, he has taken 101 great poems and rewritten them wrong. The bad ones are sometimes so bad as to be funny, but they give readers a chance to see the difference even a small change can make in a poem. The "de/compositions" are divided into five categories: "Abstract & General vs. Concrete & Specific," "Undercurrents," "The Singular Voice," "Metrics & Music," and "Structure & Climax." The only commentaries are short essays on these sections. The poems, good beside bad, stand alone and teach their lessons. What will this book do for readers? Make them laugh maybe, but it will also show them what makes a good poem and possibly help them to write some. Recommended for academic and large public libraries. Lisa J. Cihlar, Monroe P.L., WI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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More About the Author
W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009) was born in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania. His college education was interrupted by a stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II but he later completed an MFA at the State University of Iowa. Mr. Snodgrass taught English and creative writing at various universities, among them Wayne State, University of Delaware, University of Rochester, and Syracuse University. Snodgrass's first book of poems, 'Heart's Needle,' won the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, and he earned numerous awards and honors for his poetry, translations, and criticism. He also received fellowships from the Guggenheim and Ingram Merrill foundations, The Academy of American Poets, and The National Endowment for the Arts.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightenment by way of evisceration,
By Victoria Brockmeier "VB" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: De/Compositions (Paperback)
What a wonderful resource for students of poetry--whether discovering Dickinson for the first time, completing an MFA, or holding a Ph.D in literature and a full professorship. Snodgrass takes some of the most powerful poems in the English language, and eviscerates them. We are often left with hilariously or shamefully dull, clunky verse, that shows by negative example just what made the original so great.This is not only a text for use in poetry classes, although the 101 "de/composed" poems are taken from Snodgrass's own work as a teacher. There's plenty of knowledge available to the casual reader in comparing the two versions of each poem and reading the accompanying discussion. That itself is a pleasure to read, direct, lucid, insightful, and often humorous. A definite five stars!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-have title for any poet.,
By
This review is from: De/Compositions (Paperback)
W. D. Snodgrass, De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Bad (Graywolf Press, 2001)
I figured, when I put this on reserve at the library, that Snodgrass was going to take poems from otherwise excellent (or, in some cases, overrated; it's about time a serious critic finally takes Emily Dickinson to task for every one of her poems being able to be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas") poets and breaking down what went wrong in them. I was wrong, and what I got was far finer: Snodgrass rewrites 101 poems, taking out the things that make them brilliant and turning them into everything from mediocre sludge to hysterically bad self-parody. In doing so, he highlights what is so wonderful about so many excellent poems better than thousands of pages of explication could; two or three pages of explication at the end of each section is included for clarity and closing notes, to highlight a change or two, but otherwise, Snodgrass lets the poems and their deconstructions (also, the occasional rough draft from the original poet) speak for themselves. I cannot overstate the importance of this book for the working poet. It should be required reading for everyone who's ever written a poem with any pretense to greatness, and for most, it should be on the short shelf of sacred reference books to which the poet will turn hundreds, maybe thousands, of times over the course of his career. No finer book on (or of) poetry crossed my desk this year; very few finer have ever crossed it. It makes my top five books of the year. *****
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A review of de/composed poetry,
By
This review is from: De/Compositions (Paperback)
What you get with this book is an instructive education into the art of poetrycraft. Snodgrass has taken poems written by authors from Emily Dickinson to William Shakespeare and rewritten their work, essential removing the creative spark from these poems and making them dull and lifeless. In so doing, Snodgrass educates as to what makes the original shine.
As an example, Snodgrass takes the first stanza of William Blake's "The Tyger" and rewrites it (or, to use Snodgrass' expression "de/composes" it) from the usual striking variance of its original meter: Tyger! Tyger! burning bright In the forests of the night, What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry? and into strict iambics: O tyger, beast that burns so bring In darkling forests of the night, What godlike hand, what deathless eye Dare frame thy fearful symmetry? and then into anapests: O tyger, you creature that's burning so bright. In the threatening, darkening forests of night, What hand of immortal, what diety's eye Dare hope it could fashion thy feared symmetry? In so doing, Snodgrass retains the original intent of the poet, but reveals how important word choice, rhythm, voice and meter and structure are to the poet. A masterful piece of work that teaches without being "teachy." I highly recommend it!
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