Invitation to Poetry: The Pleasures of Studying Poetry and Poetics (How to Study Literature) - Hardcover

"To the casual reader, Steinman explains how poems work; to the critical reader, why they keep working. Ranging over several centuries, styles, genres, and modes of English verse, Invitation to Poetry provides both the tools needed to 'play with poems' and a manual in their use." C. D. Blanton, University of California, Berkeley "Lisa Steinman's Invitation to Poetry, with its effortless scholarship and engaging manner, offers a wonderful introduction to the study of poetry. This is a beautifully-written book which offers many pleasures, and for those who read attentively, a tremendous depth of reference underpinning its argument." Tim Armstrong, Royal Holloway, University of London

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.