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 | | The Poetry Handbook: A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism by John Lennard ISBN-10: 9780198711544 ISBN-10: 0-19-871154-9 ISBN-13: 9780198711544 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-871154-4 Hardcover 1997-01-02 Oxford University Press, USA Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Amazon.com John Lennard subtitled his Poetry Handbook, "A Guide to Reading Poetry for Pleasure and Practical Criticism," and it's an apt description. The book covers meter and layout, rhyme and syntax, with poetic examples that whet the appetite for verse. Written with evident love for and knowledge of the subject, the handbook is a requisite reference for students of poetry and an inspirational refresher for anyone who's ever thrilled to the cadences of trochaic tetrameter, duples, and rising rhythms. | ||
Product Description The Poetry Handbook is a lucid and practical guide to the poet's craft. There are chapters on metre, form, layout, lineation, punctuation, rhyme, diction, syntax, history, biography, and gender, as well as one on exams which includes sample essays by undergraduates. At the end of every chapter each topic is applied to the same poem, Nobel-winner Derek Walcott's `Nearing Forty', building up a full technical reading. Critical and scholarly terms are italicized and clearly explained, both in the text and in glossaries; notes and quotations are supplemented by detailed reference to both the Oxford Anthology of English Literature and the Norton Anthology of Poetry; and there is a substantial `Suggestions for Further Reading' section. Designed particularly for A-level and undergraduate students facing exams in Practical Criticism, The Poetry Handbook will fascinate and reward anyone interested in how poems work. | ||
Reviews | ||
An extraordinary book I am a teacher of English literature at the UNAM, in Mexico City. I have been working with Lennard's book for two or three years and it is amazing the way my students have reacted to it. They have learned a lot and are so enthusiastic about poetry now that I can only thank Mr. Lennard for his book. I recommend it strongly if you are interested in poetry. | ||
An innovative approach to teaching poetry Many books have been written about poetry and how to read it, but this one I have found to be particularly well conceived. It is written for British students who wish to sit for exams, and caters to their needs, but anyone, including seasoned poetry readers, will find it instructive. Lennard breaks the book down into chapters devoted to meter, form, layout, punctuation, lineation, rhyme, diction, syntax, history, biography, and gender. Each chapter covers various poems by various authors, but they all end with a detailed reading of one poem, 'Nearing Forty' by Nobel Prize Laureate Derek Walcott. This is a fascinating approach and quite successful, because the understanding that one gains of this poem from these eleven readings, each with a different emphasis, is quite exhaustive. The benefits do not apply only to this one poem, however, because one now has a model of close reading that can be applied to any poem, anywhere. This is an excellent book for use both in the classroom and by oneself. | ||