Poetry For Dummies

John Timpane, Maureen Watts

• Publisher: For Dummies
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9780764552724
• eBook ISBN: 9781118053645
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Teaching Languages
• Index: Literature

Demystify and appreciate the pleasures of poetry Sometimes it seems like there are as many definitions of poetry as there are poems. Coleridge defined poetry as "the best words in the best order." St. Augustine called it "the Devil's wine." For Shelley, poetry was "the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds." But no matter how you define it, poetry has exercised a hold upon the hearts and minds of people for more than five millennia. That's because for the attentive reader, poetry has the power to send chills shooting down the spine and lightning bolts flashing in the brain—to throw open the doors of perception and hone our sensibilities to a scalpel's edge.

Poetry For Dummies is a great guide to reading and writing poems, not only for beginners, but for anyone interested in verse. From Homer to Basho, Chaucer to Rumi, Shelley to Ginsberg, it introduces you to poetry's greatest practitioners. It arms you with the tools you need to understand and appreciate poetry in all its forms, and to explore your own talent as a poet. Discover how to:

• Understand poetic language and forms
• Interpret poems
• Get a handle on poetry through the ages
• Find poetry readings near you
• Write your own poems
• Shop your work around to publishers

Don't know the difference between an iamb and a trochee? Worry not, this friendly guide demystifies the jargon, and it covers a lot more ground besides, including:

• Understanding subject, tone, narrative; and poetic language
• Mastering the three steps to interpretation
• Facing the challenges of older poetry
• Exploring 5, 000 years of verse, from Mesopotamia to the global village
• Writing open-form poetry
• Working with traditional forms of verse
• Writing exercises for aspiring poets
• Getting published

From Sappho to Clark Coolidge, and just about everyone in between, Poetry For Dummies puts you in touch with the greats of modern and ancient poetry. Need guidance on composing a ghazal, a tanka, a sestina, or a psalm? This is the book for you.

Part I

Reading and Understanding Poetry

In this part . . .

In the chapters in this part, we dissect poetry into its basic elements. Here you find out why attention to each element is essential if you want to fully appreciate and understand poetry. We take you on a tour through subject and tone and point out the essential tools of the storyteller’s art. We give a short course on sound in poetry and how poets orchestrate the music of words. And then we get to the good stuff: the art of interpretation itself. You’ll discover how to speculate about a poem’s meaning and recognize the implications of that meaning. Finally, we give you a short course on reading poems of the past — and understanding language that may not be second nature to you. In these chapters, you get a sense of the poem’s impact on you as a reader.

Chapter 1

Poetry 101

In This Chapter

Knowing what sets poetry apart from other words on a page

Reading poetry aloud — and knowing why you’re doing it

Creating your own poetry from scratch

The word poetry sends chills down the spines of many otherwise strong and balanced people. Perhaps you have flashbacks of being called on in class to read a poem aloud — and not having a clue what the words you were reading meant. Or maybe you remember being required to write a poem, and even today you’re still not exactly sure what sets a poem apart from any other bunch of words thrown onto a blank page. Or perhaps you’re just curious about poetry, but you’re intimidated by the huge number of poetry books in your local bookstore or library.

No matter what your past experiences with poetry have been, you can set your worries aside. To read and write poetry, you don’t have to join some secret club, where you have to wear a moose hat with antlers, stand on one leg, and recite secret ritual formulas in Greek . . . although, goodness knows, that would be quite interesting, and we’d be happy to watch if you volunteer.

Poetry is something human beings have always done and always loved. If you want to be one of them, come along. In this chapter, we give you a working definition of what poetry is and fill you in on why people have been writing it for thousands of years. We also let you know about some great places to turn if you want to read more poetry — and while we’re on the topic, we give you a quick guide for actually reading a poem. Finally, if all this talk about poetry has inspired you (and we sure hope it has!), you can dive right in and write a poem of your own.

What Is Poetry and Why Do People Write It?

Poetry is the practice of creating artworks using language. Sculptors use marble, steel, cardboard, goose liver pâté, whatever material they choose. Musicians use sound. Painters use paint. Furniture-makers use woods and fabrics. And poets use language.

So what makes poetry different from other uses of language? Here are five things almost all poetry has more of than other language (the non-poetic kind):

Attentiveness: Poets are extremely careful with the way they use language. They pay attention to everything from spelling to the way the words sound and what they mean. They think about punctuation and the spaces between and around words. Most people simply don’t pay as much attention to these elements of language — but paying attention is the poet’s job. And poets want you to pay that sort of attention, too — to the language you read and use and to your life.

Concentration: Poetry has more meaning, music, and emotion per word, per syllable, and per letter than other kinds of writing. Poets find ways to open up explosions of understanding and emotion — while using carefully selected combinations of words. More meaning, fewer words — a nice trick. Whenever you find language especially charged with passion, music, or significance, you’re probably looking at poetry or something close to it.

Experiment: Poets try to use language in as many new, surprising, and challenging ways as they can come up with. They use language in special ways to startle, awaken, or challenge you.

Originality: Poetry says or does something new; it makes something new happen in the reader’s mind. This new thing can be a totally original observation about life, or it can be a neat way of saying something many other people have already thought or said. Whatever it is, you can tell it’s original because it doesn’t try to echo someone else’s way of saying it — it finds its own way.

Form: Most people write from one margin across to the next. Sometimes they indent to show that a new paragraph is starting. But poetry is different: It’s very often about form — the very shape or structure a particular group of words takes. The word form also refer to the way a poem is written (its mode). You can write a poem in the form of a prayer, a letter, a laundry list. And all forms carry their own worlds of meaning. So poets think a lot about form.

Poetry isn’t the only way of using language to make art, of course — for example, short stories and novels are works of art, too. But poetry usually has a greater degree of attentiveness, concentration, experiment, and form than you find in most other uses of language.

Poets are interested in exploring experience through the written word. That includes any experience you can have, as well as the world of your dreams and fantasies — the story of civilization; the taste of a peach; dancing with your father; imaginary worlds with imaginary inhabitants; sending your daughter off to college; leaving someone you...

Table of contents

• Title
• Contents
• Introduction
• Part I : Reading and Understanding Poetry
• Chapter 1: Poetry 101
• Chapter 2: Subject, Tone, and Narrative
• Chapter 3: Tuning In to Language
• Chapter 4: The Art of Interpretation
• Chapter 5: Connecting with Poems from the Past
• Part II : In the Beginning Was a Poem
• Chapter 6: An Intelligent Hustle through Poetic History: From the Earliest Poetry to the 1700s
• Chapter 7: An Intelligent Hustle through Poetic History: The 19th Century to the Present
• Part III : Writing Poetry: A Guide for Aspiring Poets
• Chapter 8: Calling the Muse
• Chapter 9: Writing Open-Form Poetry
• Chapter 10: Working with Traditional Forms of Verse
• Chapter 11: Putting Pen to Paper: Writing Exercises for Poets
• Chapter 12: Going Public with Your Poetry
• Chapter 13: Getting Published
• Part IV : The Part of Tens
• Chapter 14: Ten Myths about Poets and Poetry
• Chapter 15: Ten Poems Worth Memorizing
• Chapter 16: Ten Love Poems
• Part V : Appendixes
• Appendix A: Glossary
• Appendix B: Poetry Timeline
• Appendix C: Resources