Customer Reviews

How to Write Poetry (Third Edition)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Very eloquently written! She places it in a nice and easy to read format, with several exercises during the chapter. By the end I was writing Shakesperian sonnets, Ottava Rimas...

Readers seeking page upon page of abstract fulff will not find it here. Also, this is a portable slim volume. The author's advice is both clear and concise from chapter one's Getting Started to chapter nine's Getting Started--Again. This is a hands on approach for those who wish to be free of academic jargon and approach the subject in an understandable way. There are exercises in each chapter and examples from past and contemporary poets. For the beginning poet, the author is very inspiring.

This did not feel like a how-to book to me. I've read many how-to books on writing poetry, and the majority of them do feel like how-to's -- they explain things about poetry in varying order and take the reader through different steps. Each chapter in this book feels and reads more like a college classroom lecture than a series of instructions and suggestions. The poetry chosen is also poetry taught (over and over and over again) in college courses. The book seemed stuck in a time warp, as if the poetry of the last twenty or even fifty years didn't exist.

And somehow there isn't enough here. I'm all for brevity and succinctness, but I also want thorough explanations. In Chapter 8, on Free Verse, the author tries to explain line breaks by using William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow." When the lesson was over with, I really needed at least one more, preferably two more, poems in which the author explained line break decisions. In short, I wanted more.

I have written poems in the past and wanted to better myself. I thought this book would be a welcome start. Oh, how wrong I was. I find it useless and uninformative. Nancy Bogen is trying to do a favor by adding 31 addresses of publishers, where a young poet can submit his/her works. Maybe she didn't find it necessary to research the names and addresses further. If she had, she would've found out that 12 of the 31 listed by Ms. Bogen no longer exist. I am very unhappy with this book. Do yourselves a favor and save your money! If you are thinking about submitting your work, please DO NOT submit to "The Small Pond" Magazine in Stratford, CT since this editor is very rude and instead of giving constructive criticism about your work, finds it more important to criticize your letter of introduction.

I would like to award this author and her book
minus 10 stars if I could!
(goodie that rhymes, could I get published too?!)

... that yet another talentless hobo got published.
No stars for this useless edition.