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The Art of Poetry Writing: A Guide For Poets, Students, & Readers Hardcover – June 15, 1992
| William Packard (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Lively, inspiring, opinionated, and sometimes curmudgeonly, The Art of Poetry Writing covers a broad range of topics, both technical and personal, that all poets need to consider:
-Poetic devices and diction
-Verse forms and free verse
-Rhyme and metrics
-Creative vision and revision
-The benefits and problems of workshops and writing classes
-30 writing challenges to develop form and style and technique
-When to seek publication-and when not to
-What to read while writing
-The life of the poet, including keeping a journal, giving readings, applying for grants, and more.
Remarks by and excerpts from the work of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden, Stevens, Moore, Thomas, Ginsberg, Sexton, Plath, Dickey, Bukowski, Ashbery, and dozens of other poets make this an essential companion for students, teachers and anyone who writes or reads poetry.
- Print length240 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherSt. Martin's Press
- Publication dateJune 15, 1992
- Dimensions6 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
- ISBN-10031207641X
- ISBN-13978-0312076412
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"William Packard surely must be one of the great editors of our time." --James Dickey
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (June 15, 1992)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 240 pages
- ISBN-10 : 031207641X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0312076412
- Item Weight : 2.2 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.75 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #688,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #563 in Poetry Literary Criticism (Books)
- #3,151 in Literary Criticism & Theory
- #9,381 in Poetry (Books)
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O cuckoo shall I call thee bird
or but a wandering voice.
The second adds:
State the alternative preferred
with reasons for your choice.
If the author of this skit was Housmann (so says Stephen Fry), little has changed in the century or so between our respective school days. Would-be teachers of poetry now being just as glib, just as clinical, and every bit as dull as their predecessors. The exception being that nowadays the second teacher would be read as some sort of ironic/sarcastic, self-referential postmodernist. He would though remain glib, clinical and dull, with the addition of becoming an incredible imbecile as well.
Packard is no imbecile. He is droll where others are glib, expansive where they are clinical, he is intelligent, insightful and very far from dull. What he has achieved is commendable. The mechanics of a poem can be analysed and poured over and they have been by all and sundry. Those technical aspects however, can't be treated adequately in isolation from the the vision of the poem; its soul. To me this is what makes teaching poetry the most unenviable task. I know of know one who has been able to, in short, or at length, capture the essence of creating poetry, the 'art' of it, not as I understand it. Certainly not great poetry. And by that I mean simply poetry that has the power to exalt. Packard has approached this task as well as anyone. Having done so he is in rare company. Mary Oliver comes to mind. Strange that they should both be North American. Perhaps Europeans aren't quite so fearless. Or perhaps Europeans know better than to tread where angels wouldn't be caught dead?





