Invitation to Poetry: The Pleasures of Studying Poetry and Poetics

For anyone who has ever wanted to become fluent in the language of poetry, Invitation to Poetry will prove an essential guide. This book: Teaches the serious student how to speak poetry through an in–depth examination of the traditional features and technical vocabulary of poetic language; Examines British and American materials from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries in order to give students a sense of a range of different period styles, poetic projects, and strategies; Explicitly examines, questions and challenges the relationship of poetry to literary periods and canons; Offers the technical tools essential for close reading and interpretation across a broad chronological spectrum.

Preface.

Acknowledgments.

1. Conceptual Syntax: An Introduction to the Way Poems Invite Different Approaches and Position Readers.

2. Speaking Poetry: Night Pieces and Intertextual Conversations.

3. The Gestures and Subjects of the Sonnet.

4. The Uses of Meter and Rhythm in the Sonnet.

5. The Form of the Voice: Tone and Diction.

6. Modes, Odes, and Odic Gestures.

7. What is Pastoral?.

8. Traditions, Legacies, and Individual Talents.

9. Forests and Trees, or Playing with Poems.

Index

Lisa M. Steinman is the Kenan Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. A practicing poet, she has also written two highly regarded books on poetry: Masters of Repetition: Poetry, Culture, and Work in Thomson, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Emerson (1998) and Made In America: Science, Technology, and American Modernist Poets (1989). Her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Rockefeller Foundation.

One could not find a better guide than Steinman (Reed College) for developing a sound approach to reading poems. This eclecticism in examples proves to readers how a rigorous approach to reading can allow one to tackle a variety of texts from different eras. Written in a lively and engaging manner, this book is best suited to those embarking on literary studies or creative writing, particularly poetry. Highly recommended. ( Choice Reviews, October 2008)