Customer Reviews

Poetry For Dummies

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Poetry for Dummies was another of those books I was really hoping I didn't like. The whole "For Dummies" series gets on my nerves to begin with, so it is double trouble when I picked this title up and found it valuable on so many counts.

The opening section: Poetry 101 is an excellent read and in and of itself makes the book worth the purchase.

Each chapter clearly marks the intent across the top and is chock filled with check lists, hints and suggestions for the reader AND the practicing (new and old alike) poet. I was thinking, "This will all be old hat, I am sure" until I saw the authors include the staff from The Poetry Center in San Francisco.

What poet or poet-in-the-making doesn't nod, smile and point when we read this affirmation? "Poetry has more meaning, music and emotion per words, per syllable, per letter than any other kind of writing." (I could have sworn I heard an "Amen!" from the crowd or maybe... that was me.)

The book also includes some very valuable appendices with websites and poetry organizations.

Excellent resource for all poets and the people who love them. Check this one out.

Poetry For Dummies is the first book of its kind to be readable, sensible and understandable. For the novice or the more proficient, it is a great source book. Lots of innovative ideas and suggestions as well as rock solid poetic info! The college course I took in Creative Poetry (an upper division course!) didn't give me the easy access and insight that this book did.
Guess I qualify as a "Dummie!"

It's good for getting acquainted with some famous poets and some poetic forms. I'd recommend it for high school students. For those with basic knowledge of poetry and meters and scheme, I'd recommend "How to Read a Poem: and fall in love with poetry" by Edward Hirsch, which helps with the art of interpreting. But it's not as easy reading as this book (which I applaud for it simplicity).

The authors have a gift for writing good simple prose as well as good poetry. Like others I had my doubts about this book but it was a surprise. It was so well written that I found it hard to put down. I've read it many times but still have it close by to aid me in my poetic jottings. What I liked best was their style of writing, very hip and trendy. It brings poetry into the 21st century.

I was happily surprised to read this book. As a poet, I was curious to see what this book had to offer. I believe that anyone who has had trouble understanding why poetry is important will find this text a valuable experience. I would recommend this "Dummy" book to everyone. I especially enjoyed the glossary with all the technical terms and explanations for various types of poetic expressions. This was a wonderful surprise.

How to rate this book . . . tough. The tone is really, Really, REALLY annoying! It speaks to the reader as if the reader is a dummy, a dummy who has to be told the most painfully obvious things. I would like to think that the authors do not really write down to people this way, and that some editor at the "Dummy" series put this tone into their manuscript. Maybe so, maybe not.

However, there are some good parts to this book, including the way the reader is introduced to poetry from around the world, over the last two thousand years or more. This is valuable information to one who wants to be a poet. There are short introductions to certain poets, such as Walt Whitman, and there are many wonderful poems. If you want to write poetry and feel the need of a small push, this book isn't bad -- although I prefer "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing Poetry." Bottom line: I don't think you can do yourself harm by reading this book and absorbing the poetry and thinking about poetic forms.

This book is a good book for defusing whatever unhappy feelings about poetry the reader may have acquired from formal education.

Even someone who already knows a little bit about poetry will likely learn some things from this book, as a sincere effort is made to introduce the reader to poetry from many different cultures and many different ages.

The drawback is that this book tries to capture 4700 years of human poetry in 17 pages. I would have been ok with the authors spending a few more pages. "Here's Shakespeare, here's Rumi, moving right along..." That's what made me withhold the fifth star.

It's hard to pick ten poems, or ten love poems, for the "List of Tens" section, without being subjective.

But still, this is a good book to read for someone who has a desire to create poetry, but doesn't know where to start.

As a student at RMIT, I read children's poetry after having known that adult poetry can be very hard and that very simple children's poetry is no introduction to adult poetry. I have recently tried to read adult poetry for myself and I will admit I have learned quite a bit about how to read it if remaining absolutely a novice.

In contrast to The Complete Idiot's Guide to English Literature, "Poetry for Dummies" is able to place the right focus on understanding both how its topic works and its history from ancient oral poetry to the modern era. It's structure is very well thought-out and logical, so that the reader with even less knowledge of poetry than I have should have no trouble in getting all the way through the book.

"Poetry for Dummies" looks very well at all the major movements in the history of poetry, from Romanticism to the Beats and discusses such classic foreign forms as the haiku of Japan. It does so in a manner that is exceptionally easy to read and comprehend, and there is the added bonus of instructions of how to write poetry in any style from the most rigid to the freest verse. It even explains how these structures evolved and how free verse itself is extremely ancient though only revived quite recently.

A bonus is the quiz at the front and lists of "Ten Poems Worth Memorising" and "Ten Love Poems" at the back that will further help the poetry novice understand poetry. The selection is good enough to be regarded as fair: it is not like they are selecting the latest, most politically correct poetry as the PIGs would have you believe: there is a poem by Shakespeare for a start and several others from the classic canon.

Even if not perfect for the expert, "Poetry for Dummies" satisfies all the requirements for people trying to grasp a complex artform.

I am a literature professor at a university and am always trying to find new ways of making students more open-minded about poetry. Many students come to the classroom determined to hate poetry and assume that it's impossible to understand. This book has a conversational style while covering a lot of basic analytical techniques. It has definitely given me some good ideas on how to inspire my students without overwhelming them with theory. I initially just checked it out of the library for a quick read, but I will purchase a copy for future reference.

A few years ago I got in touch with my talent for writing poetry, and this book was one of the first I bought as a way to learn more about the variety of ways to write the little darlings.

An informative introduction to the writing of poetry for anyone who wants to try their own hand at it.

Easy to understand, detailed, and just plain fun to read.