The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms (edit title)

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Most Helpful Reviews

Liked It Rated 5 stars “A clear and concise way to present the standard poetic forms. Reading this book was a pleasure for someone un-acclimated to the historical conventions of poetry. If I had had this book as a companion piece when plowing through the Norton Anthologies as an undergraduate, I would have surely...” see full review » see other reviews »

Newest Reviews

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  • Rated 3 stars

  “I thought this would be a good refresher for me on the various structures of poetry, and the history of their origins. It was a bit dry at times, and not as approachable as I expected. But it was nice coming across poems I knew, like seeing old friends again.”

  LoriSuzanne wrote this review Monday, August 25 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 5 stars

  “A clear and concise way to present the standard poetic forms.
  Reading this book was a pleasure for someone un-acclimated to the historical conventions of poetry. If I had had this book as a companion piece when plowing through the Norton Anthologies as an undergraduate, I would have surely appreciated each form and movement more. In my graduate level poetry class at USC with Nan Cohen, (one of the compilers of this book), we went through each chapter and workshopped our own poems for selected chapters. After this extremely practical experience, I went back to the descriptions of each poetic form time and again to put words to the feelings I found when writing these pieces of poesy. Despite the weak chapter on the pastoral poem (where my classmates and I couldn’t find any conventional pastoral themes in the majority of selections) Strand and Boland really know what they are doing in this book, and it is entirely practical, inspirational and authoritatively written.
  
  In class Cohen said, “I really think there is no other subject in a poem but time.” If you are a poet, I think this book is worth all the time you can give it.
  
  Other Poetry I recommend: Aram Saroyan: the Complete Minimal Poems, Charles Simic 3:00 a.m., Gerald Locklin, Go West Young Toad and Furniture by Various Authors”

  Silke wrote this review Wednesday, June 4 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 4 stars

  “Both a textbook and an anthology of poetry. This has a wide range of poems as well as explanations of different forms. ”

  Katie H wrote this review Tuesday, May 27 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 4 stars

  “This is also a textbook, but it is organized well and the writing isn't as dry as some of the others. Four stars for usefulness and readability.”

  Lily B wrote this review Friday, March 28 2008. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No

  
  
  • Rated 0 stars

  “This is a fun little book. It discusses the history of various poetic forms and then provides both classic and modern forms of each. I've learned about forms I didn't know, such as the sestina, and read poems that make marvelous use of the form (such as The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina). At the end of each section, they do a ``close up'' on one of the poems. All in all, a great book for my continuing self-education in poetry.
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  Brian Dewey wrote this review Monday, May 21 2007. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No