Books We Read: Poetry

• An Exaltation of Forms by Annie Ridley Crane Finch (Editor); Kathrine Lorne Varnes (Editor)

  ISBN: 0472097253

  Publication Date: 2002-02-20

  The editors invited over fifty contemporary poets to select a poetic meter, stanza, or form, describe it, recount its history, and provide favorite examples. The essays represent a remarkably diverse range of literary styles and approaches, and show how the forms of contemporary English-language poetry derive from a wealth of different traditions. The forms range from hendecasyllabics to prose poetry, haiku to procedural poetry, sonnets to blues, rap to fractal verse.
• Rhyme's Reason by John Hollander

  ISBN: 0300043066

  Publication Date: 1989-09-10

  Poems by the author complement a guide to writing English verse, surveying the forms and patterns of Old English and looking at an assortment of contemporary styles of free verse.

• How to Read a Poem. By Edward Hirsch

  "Reading poetry well is part attitude and part technique".
• Reading a Poem: 20 Strategies. A guide for the perplexed. By Mark Yakich

  "The experience of reading a poem itself is as likely to turn us off, intellectually or emotionally, as it is to move us." From The Atlantic.
• How to Read and Talk About Poetry. By Jessica Flynn

  From the National Endowment for the Art Blog.
• How to read poetry like a professor. By Thomas Foster

  An ex-literature professor and author, explains how to get the most out of poems while avoiding intimidation. From The Guardian.
• How to Recognize a Poem When You See One. By Stanley Fish

  "not only for the meanings a poem might be said to have but for the fact of its being recognized as a poem in the first place"

• 52 ways of looking at a poem, or, How reading modern poetry can change your life. By Ruth Padel

  Modern poetry is often represented as difficult or remote from most people's experience. This is a passionate attempt to introduce and examine all aspects of comtemporary poetry, from the intricacies of rhythm and rhyme to the choice of subject matter, and make it a familiar part of our lives.
• The Practice of Poetry. Edited by Robin Behn & ChaseTwichell

  Writing exercises from poets who teach. A distinctive collection of more than 90 effective poetry--writing exercises combined with corresponding essays to inspire writers of all levels.
• Don't Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poems. By Stephanie Burt

  Award-winning poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt offers an accessible introduction to the seemingly daunting task of reading, understanding, and appreciating poetry. Burt dispels preconceptions about poetry and explains how poems speak to one another--and how they can speak to our lives. She shows readers how to find more poems once they have some poems they like, and how to connect the poetry of the past to the poetry of the present.