Customer Reviews

Poetry For Beginners

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Anyone can be a poet without really knowing it. "Poetry for Beginners" is a guide to those who want to embrace lyrical verse as an art form. Seeking to inspire people to the power and relevance of poetry, authors Margaret Chapman and Kathleen Welton give readers plenty to soak in and embrace poetry's endless potential for expression. Speaking on major poets throughout the world and with plenty of examples, "Poetry for Beginners" is truly a beginning poet's best source of inspiration.

As someone who is not really into poetry and its history, but wants to become more familiar with it, I find this an excellent introduction. It's easy to read, and it presents some rather dense material in small chunks to help illuminate the topics at hand. The illustrations are not essential, but help keep the material visually engaging. There are lots of samples of poetry, and many poets are introduced. There are not many complete poems, so one might follow this by reading an anthology or studying particular poets in depth.

I am disappointed with the lack of proofreading on the text, though. There are a number of omitted words. Example:

"Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is known as the master of the haiku, even though the form did exist with that name during his lifetime."

This should read "...did not exist...".

Nonetheless, I would not hesitate to recommend this to someone looking for an introduction to poetry.