The Art of Poetry: How to Read a Poem - Softcover

The Art of Poetryi is both a superb technical manual and an authentic guide to the art of reading poetry. With brilliance and extraordinary lucidity, Wolosky illuminates such essential matters as metaphor, poetic voice, and the crucial relation of rhetoric to poetic meaning. I cannot imagine a more useful and distinguished book of this kind. (Harold Bloom, author of The Anxiety of Influence)

Shira Wolosky's comprehensive and lucid practical introduction to what makes poems poetic also provides a sophisticated and informative look at theoretical poetics in all its aspects. It is rare that an elementary study can also be as useful for advanced students and teachers of poetry as this well-worked-out exposition, clearly written and free of pseudo-theoretical jargon. (John Hollander, Yale University)

This book is a welcome gift, an arresting vade mecum for student and teacher, reader and writer alike. (Robert Fagles, Princeton University)

A uniquely comprehensive, step-by-step introduction to poetic form, The Art of Poetry moves progressively from smaller units such as the word, line, and image, to larger features such as verse forms and voice.In fourteen engaging, eloquently written chapters, Wolosky explores in depth how poetry works while offering brilliant readings of some of the finest lyric poetry in the English and American traditions. Both readers new to poetry and poetry veterans will be moved and enlightened as Wolosky interprets works by William Shakespeare, John Donne, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Sylvia Plath, and others. Featuring a comprehensive bibliography, a glossary of poetic terms, and a new appendix of suggestions for further reading, TheArt of Poetry is a rich source of inspiration.