Customer Reviews

A Poetry Handbook

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"A Poetry Handbook," by Mary Oliver, is a nonfiction prose text about the art of writing poetry. In the book Oliver, herself an excellent poet, gives a clear and painless introduction to some structural aspects of poetry. She defines many technical terms: alliteration, onomatopoeia, alexandrine, caesura, quatrain, persona, etc. She also discusses various poetic forms: sonnet, free verse, etc. Other topics addressed include imagery and diction. Throughout the book, Oliver illustrates her points with poetry by some of the greatest practitioners of the craft: Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, etc.

The book is aimed at both readers and writers of poetry. For the latter, Oliver reflects on such practical issues as revision and participation in poetry workshops. The book reflects Oliver's own philosophy of poetry. She stresses that poetry is a craft that requires work and discipline, and encourages the reader to think of poets as constituting a "tribe" that transcends all geographic and cultural boundaries.

The book is not without flaws. I found it quite Eurocentric; she never discusses the haiku, a Japanese verse form that has been embraced by many in the English-speaking world. Other non-Western forms are similarly neglected.

Some of her opinionated pronouncements also seem open to debate. She notes that a poem "gives pleasure through the authority and sweetness of the language," but I think some poems are effective conduits of rage or outrage and make use of unpleasant language to shake up the reader. Regarding the revision process, she notes that sometimes "it is simply best to throw a poem away" -- but, I ask, who is to make that decision? Something a poet might want to discard may in fact be a great poem in another's eyes.

Also, although she gives many good examples of good poems, it might have been interesting if she had included some bad ones to illustrate her points further.

Despite its flaws, however, I think that "A Poetry Handbook" would be a solid text for both individual reading and classroom use. And I think that some of Oliver's questionable statements could trigger productive discussion! Ultimately, I appreciate Oliver's declaration that poetry "is a life-cherishing force [...] as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry." Recommended as companion texts: Audre Lorde's essay "Poetry Is Not a Luxury," from her collection "Sister Outsider," and Pablo Neruda's prose collection "Passions and Impressions."

Mary Oliver's poetry itself can do some teaching on its own, but we can be grateful she's chosen to articulate the writing process so richly in this book. The book will almost certainly will wring some writing out of you; it will also inspire you to examine your work habits and technique. Oliver's intelligence shines through, and will make you a better reader of poetry. Small note on the previous review: Mary Oliver does, indeed, teach, at Bennington College currently. If you can't enroll there, this book is your next best choice.

The book is a concise, brilliant guide for anyone interested in writing poetry or in understanding it better.

Mary Oliver is a well-known, distinguished poet. Her book "A Poetry Handbook" was recommended to me by a professor from my current MFA Poetry program and it has been both a surprise, and a confirmation that poets themselves (not academics and critics) have the deepest insight into how to write a good poem. Oliver suggests that poetry is like a current ready to flow through you. It is not merely "an acquisition," a skill, or something outside yourself - but more a combination of punctuality in "showing up" to do the work, and an opening of the heart (or,as Oliver calls it: "that shy factory of the emotion.")

Each chapter addresses component parts of poetry writing: line, sound, diction, imagery, voice and more. Oliver's choice of poets: Whitman, Bishop, James Wright, Frost, Pound, are all strong choices, their poems providing supportive examples of her discussion of craft.

Most importantly, however, she provides the best piece of advise in her opening chapters: read, read, read poems. To be a good poet, you must read a range of poetry, spanning history and geography and style. And after that, Oliver provides the surprise (a heady permission I learned in my very early years of writing which has held fast through many moments of flagging confidence and motivation) "Imitate." We read, we imitate, and from this process we find our own voice and style. As Oliver tells us: "It demands finally, a thrust of our own imagination - a force, a new idea - to make sure that we don't merely copy, but inherit, and proceed from what we have learned."

Though beautifully simple and straightforward, I would not categorize this book as being for any particular level of writer: beginner, or accomplished. The beginner will learn well and happily, and the more accomplished writer will find again and again, much needed resonance for the continuing passion of writing poetry.

Say what you will about her poetry, Mary Oliver clearly understands the technical aspects of the craft and in this small tome she conveys them brilliantly. With a clear voice and plenty of examples drawn from the masters of poetry, Oliver is able to bring great insights to the beginner or amateur poetry writer.

It may be going just a bit far to say that Oliver's book is to poetry what Strunk & White's is to prose, but for the non-expert it feels awful close.

With _A Poetry Handbook_, Mary Oliver does for poetry what Strunk and White did for prose. This book is elementary, not in the sense of being remedial, but as a clear introduction to the fundimental principles of poetic criticism and craft. This is a book you will reference repeatedly, whose pages you will yellow with delight throughout your career -- however casual or professional -- in poetry.

After having written a dozen or so poems, I decided to get some professional insight with this and a few other books. I was most impressed with this book, what a great guide Mary is on this adventure. Wonderful examples, and very "matter of fact" approach.

Mary Oliver chose to avoid teaching so she could concentrate on her poetry. Too bad for students. Here, however, she gives students and accomplished poets alike a sensible and sensitive handbook that conveys not only the craft of poetry but its power, its mystery, and its magic. Readers who say they don't like poetry should give Oliver a chance to change their minds and hearts

What Oliver manages to do is speak to both the experienced and just-initiated poets. While I've been writing poetry since grade school, I wouldn't truly consider my poet as before reading this book, the most I could tell you about a sonnet was that it rhymed and the most about a haiku is that you had to write it in a certain amount of syllables. Oliver's book is quite an inspiration to get the creative juices following and is quite a manual on the process. Don't get me wrong, Oliver takes care of explaining the technical aspect of the poet's craft, but her book was more of a 'creative matchbox' than a classbook.

Reading Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook feels a bit like settling down with the magazine Cook's Illustrated. The magazine is published by people who love growing, preparing and eating food and who love the traditions and history of cooking. An issue might contain articles explaining how the combination of baking soda and baking powder work in pancakes, or the chemical effects of salting eggs before or after scrambling them. Then there are recipes for dishes one might actually imagine cooking -pot roast, or blueberry pie. After reading Cook's Illustrated, I think, "I can do this," and I value more deeply the daily beauty of putting ingredients together in new and old ways.

Mary Oliver loves words like the Cook's Illustrated people love food. She loves the sounds of words, the rhythm of words, the combinations of words in poems. She loves the history of poetry, its forms and patterns. She shares this love with the reader, so that poets and readers of poetry walk away from her book thinking, "I can do this, maybe. Maybe if I work very hard, if I read poets, if I practice and imitate, as she suggests." Whether one writes or not, the reader leaves with a deeper appreciation of the ingredients and structure of poems. In this short volume Oliver explains how various meters work, how the sounds of words contribute to a poem, and how free verse is deeply connected to traditional forms. She lays out a feast, with well-chosen poems to illustrate her lessons and leaves us hungry for more. She could have included a more international menu, perhaps, but this slim volume stimulates the appetite and encourages the reader to put on an apron, choose ingredients with care, and begin to cook.