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The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms
Poetry's Ingredients: Mark Strand and Eavan Boland Explore Form
Explaining beauty is hard work. But distinguished poets Mark Strand and Eavan Boland have produced a clear, super-helpful book that unravels part of the mystery of great poems through an engaging exploration of poetic structure. Strand and Boland begin by promising to "look squarely at some of the headaches" of poetic form: the building blocks of poetry. The Making of a Poem gradually cures many of those headaches.
Strand, who's won the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship and has served as U.S. Poet Laureate, and Boland, an abundantly talented Irish poet who has also written a beautiful book of essays on writing and womanhood, are both accustomed to teaching. Strand, now at the University of Chicago, and Boland, a Stanford professor, draw upon decades in the classroom to anticipate most questions.
Explaining beauty is hard work. But distinguished poets Mark Strand and Eavan Boland have produced a clear, super-helpful book that unravels part of the mystery of great poems through an engaging exploration of poetic structure. Strand and Boland begin by promising to "look squarely at some of the headaches" of poetic form: the building blocks of poetry. The Making of a Poem gradually cures many of those headaches.
Strand, who's won the Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Fellowship and has served as U.S. Poet Laureate, and Boland, an abundantly talented Irish poet who has also written a beautiful book of essays on writing and womanhood, are both accustomed to teaching. Strand, now at the University of Chicago, and Boland, a Stanford professor, draw upon decades in the classroom to anticipate most questions.
Ever wonder what a pantoum is? A villanelle? A sestina? With humor, patience, and personal anecdotes, Strand and Boland offer answers. But the way they answer is what makes this book stand out. The forms are divided into three overarching categories: metrical forms, shaping forms, and open forms. "Metrical forms" include the sonnet, pantoum, and heroic couplet. "Shaping forms" explains broader categories, like the elegy, ode, and pastoral poem. And "open forms" offers new takes on the traditional blueprints, exploring poems like Allen Ginsberg's "America."
Each established form is then approached in three ways, followed by several pages of outstanding poems in that form. First, the editors offer a "page at a glance" guide, with five or six characteristics of that specific form presented in a brief outline. For example, the pantoum is defined like this:
1) Each pantoum stanza must be four lines long.
2) The length is unspecified but the pantoum must begin and end with the
same line.
3) The second and fourth lines of the first quatrain become the first and third line of the next, and so on with succeeding quatrains.
4) The rhyming of each quatrain is abab.
5) The final quatrain changes this pattern.
6) In the final quatrain the unrepeated first and third lines are used
in reverse as second and fourth lines.
With this outline, it's easy to identify the looping pantoum. In the second piece of the pantoum section, Strand and Boland include a "History of the Form" section, again condensed to one page. Here, we learn that the pantoum is "Malayan in origin and came into English, as so many other strict forms have, through France." Indeed, both Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire tried their hands at the pantoum. As always, Strand and Boland offer some comparison to the other forms, which helps explain why a poet might choose to write a pantoum over, say, a sonnet or a sestina:
"Of all verse forms the pantoum is the slowest. The reader takes four steps forward, then two steps back. It is the perfect form for the evocation of a past time."
Next, the editors include "The Contemporary Context," which introduces several of the pantoums of this century. Finally, in what may be the book's best feature, they provide a close-up of a pantoum, an approach they repeat for each form discussed. In this case, it's the "Pantoum of the Great Depression" by Donald Justice. The editors offer some biographical information on Justice, and then they map out how that specific poem gets its power.
This "poet's explanation" of the workings of a poem is invaluable, especially when it comes from leading poets such as Stand and Boland. What's more, these remarks are transferable. Reading how Strand and Boland view a dozen poems transforms the way one reads. With any future poem, you can look for what Strand and Boland have found in the greats.
The editors offer their readers a great start, with a list for further reading and a helpful glossary. If anything can get a person excited about poetry, this selection of poems can -- though the editors, as working poets, readily admit their choices are idiosyncratic.
Gems here include the best work of lesser-known poets, including several "poets' poets." For example, Edward Thomas, a prominent reviewer in his day and a close friend of Robert Frost's, is represented by "Rain," an absolutely brilliant blank-verse poem which begins:
Rain, midnight rain, nothing but wild rain
On this bleak hut, and solitude, and me
Remembering again that I shall die
And neither hear the rain nor give it thanks
For washing me cleaner than I have been
Since I was born into this solitude.
Thomas's poem -- and other treasures here -- introduces readers to what and how poets read to learn to make poems. Of course, many of the usual suspects are found here, but the surprises are exciting, and even the old favorites seem new when the editors explain why and how a particular poem seems beautiful. This is particularly evident in their discussion of Edna St. Vincent Millay's rushing, initially breathless sonnet "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and How, " which reads:
What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning, but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.
Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree
Nor knows what birds have vanquished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.
In the "close-up" section, Strand and Boland offer an biographical paragraph that mentions that in 1923, Millay became the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. They then discuss Millay's "distinctive and unusual" approach to the sonnet form: "Instead of taking the more leisurely pace of the public sonnet that had been the 19th-century model, she drove her sonnets forward with a powerful lyric music and personal emphasis."
The editors point out Millay's heavy reliance on assonance and alliteration, and then note how she takes advantage of the different tempos the sonnet offers:
"Here she uses her distinctive music and high diction to produce an unusually quick-paced poem in the first octave and then a slower, more reflective septet where the abandoned lover becomes a winter tree. This ability of the sonnet, to accommodate both lyric and reflective time, made it a perfect vehicle for highly intuitive twentieth-century poets like Millay."
That simple explanation of the sonnet as a form able to "accommodate both lyric and reflective time" helps clarify most sonnets. But Strand and Boland are careful not to explain everything. The deepest beauty, as they explain in their introductory essays on their attraction to form, is built on mystery. And it is that attempt to understand the greatest mysteries that defines the greatest poems.
Similarly, mystery often drives poets to write, as Strand explains in his essay on Archibald MacLeish's "You, Andrew Marvell," which Strand describes as the first poem he wished he had written himself in his early years as a poet:
"Although I no longer wish I had written 'You, Andrew Marvell,' I wish, however, that I could write something like it, something with its sweep, its sensuousness, its sad crepuscular beauty, something capable of carving out such a large psychic space for itself&. There is something about it that moves me in ways I don't quite understand, as it were communicating more than what it actually says. This is often the case with good poems -- they have a lyric identity that goes beyond whatever their subject happens to be."
With this book, Strand and Boland help quantify the explicable parts of a "lyric identity." Understanding form, the editors believe, is one way to begin understanding a poem's beauty. This lucid, useful book is a wonderful guide to that mysterious music.
Aviya Kushner
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
About the author
Mark Strand
158 books247 followersMark Strand was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet, essayist, and translator. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1990. He was a professor of English at Columbia University and also taught at numerous other colleges and universities.
Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.
He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.
Strand also wrote children's books and art criticism, helped edit several poetry anthologies and translated Spanish poet Rafael Alberti.
He is survived by a son, a daughter and a sister.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 142 reviews
October 7, 2009
This wonderful book came my way as required reading in a Poetry class in college. Our professor was the best kind of MFA-type instructor, himself a great poet. Through this book, he introduced us to a variety of poetic forms and had us attempt them. The class structure extended out from the book format. It was one of the most rewarding courses I ever took.
As textbooks go, this one’s a gem, certainly one of the best constructed anthologies that the Norton Gods have ever published for us little people. Great examples of each form are provided along with concise, user-friendly explanations. Discover why Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a masterwork of form, not just a scrappy call to flip Death the bird.
Bottom line: this is a reference work of sufficient quality that you shouldn’t wait for an English Professor to make you buy it. If you love exploring poetry on your own, this is a great companion.
As textbooks go, this one’s a gem, certainly one of the best constructed anthologies that the Norton Gods have ever published for us little people. Great examples of each form are provided along with concise, user-friendly explanations. Discover why Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” is a masterwork of form, not just a scrappy call to flip Death the bird.
Bottom line: this is a reference work of sufficient quality that you shouldn’t wait for an English Professor to make you buy it. If you love exploring poetry on your own, this is a great companion.
March 13, 2012
The poem selections are mostly good, and the lists of each form's attributes are adequate, but the sections of introductory and critical text in each chapter are nearly useless, and poorly written to a baffling degree.
Confused, sloppy syntax:
"He would die at the age of thirty, executed for no real reason by Henry VIII, except that he advised his sister to become the king's mistress and for some minor offenses."
Broad and unsupported claims, non sequitur:
"Even as a useful, witty, and musical unit, no one could have predicted the extraordinary development in the couplet that happened in the sixteenth century. Suddenly poets began to think, to argue, and to explain in the couplet. This then took the name "the heroic couplet," denoting a high subject matter."
And at times what appears to be word count padding:
"His intention was to produce a strict ten-syllable line and this is what he endeavored to do."
Seriously? In most cases, you'll get more information, better-supported and organized, from Wikipedia.
Confused, sloppy syntax:
"He would die at the age of thirty, executed for no real reason by Henry VIII, except that he advised his sister to become the king's mistress and for some minor offenses."
Broad and unsupported claims, non sequitur:
"Even as a useful, witty, and musical unit, no one could have predicted the extraordinary development in the couplet that happened in the sixteenth century. Suddenly poets began to think, to argue, and to explain in the couplet. This then took the name "the heroic couplet," denoting a high subject matter."
And at times what appears to be word count padding:
"His intention was to produce a strict ten-syllable line and this is what he endeavored to do."
Seriously? In most cases, you'll get more information, better-supported and organized, from Wikipedia.
June 7, 2008
Very well done technical manual on forms and structures of poetry, probably as useful for working poets as for students or critics. Terms are clearly defined, plenty of examples, a good book to have nearby when reading (or, I would imagine, writing) poetry.
March 15, 2009
An excellent, accessible introduction to poetic forms. Deals more with the historical use of the form than the contemporary, but still a must-have for poets today who are experimenting with inherited forms.
December 6, 2019
Any anthology is inherently political; especially when the editor chooses to bulk it out with old, white men writing before the mid-nineteenth century.
The poems selected for this anthology serve their purpose. They show how inherited forms have evolved throughout history and how each poet treats that form differently. However, as I said, the selections could definitely have been more diverse (more women, please!) and I would have greatly appreciated further instalments of contemporary poetry, especially in the more ‘archaic’ forms.
The context for each form is, generally, informative, although there are instances of sloppy prose and attempts to get down with the lingo that just had me snorting with derision:
‘The idea of a poem written so close to a community that it is almost coauthored by it is very far from the concept of that tremendous loner – the modern poet.’
‘Repetition becomes a form of affirmation, a way of establishing fixity. An example might be: ‘Did you really go to the store?’ ‘Yes, I’m telling you I went to the store.’ ‘Well, then, what kind of store was it?’ ‘A furniture store, you dumbass.’ ‘Are you calling me an ass?’ ‘I am because you simply won’t believe I went to the store.’’
Can you guess what poetic form these are referring to??!
(Ballad and sestina, if you’re wondering.)
The case studies are rather airy fairy and overwritten, doing little to illuminate the poem or relate the content to the form. It’s also never a good impression when the first poem you write an essay on has a transcription error: The Convergence of the Twain, page 145, it should be ‘cold currents thrid’, not ‘third’.
Not the most enlightening anthology I’ve read, but it served its purpose.
The poems selected for this anthology serve their purpose. They show how inherited forms have evolved throughout history and how each poet treats that form differently. However, as I said, the selections could definitely have been more diverse (more women, please!) and I would have greatly appreciated further instalments of contemporary poetry, especially in the more ‘archaic’ forms.
The context for each form is, generally, informative, although there are instances of sloppy prose and attempts to get down with the lingo that just had me snorting with derision:
‘The idea of a poem written so close to a community that it is almost coauthored by it is very far from the concept of that tremendous loner – the modern poet.’
‘Repetition becomes a form of affirmation, a way of establishing fixity. An example might be: ‘Did you really go to the store?’ ‘Yes, I’m telling you I went to the store.’ ‘Well, then, what kind of store was it?’ ‘A furniture store, you dumbass.’ ‘Are you calling me an ass?’ ‘I am because you simply won’t believe I went to the store.’’
Can you guess what poetic form these are referring to??!
(Ballad and sestina, if you’re wondering.)
The case studies are rather airy fairy and overwritten, doing little to illuminate the poem or relate the content to the form. It’s also never a good impression when the first poem you write an essay on has a transcription error: The Convergence of the Twain, page 145, it should be ‘cold currents thrid’, not ‘third’.
Not the most enlightening anthology I’ve read, but it served its purpose.
June 2, 2021
I read this book for a creative writing poetry class. I can't say that it was entertaining, but it did convey the information of poetic forms in a simple and concise manner which is something lacking in a lot of other academic writing books. Some of the example poems were very beautiful and I probably wouldn't have decided to read them if it wasn't for assigned reading.
All in all, if you want to learn about poetic forms with a brief history and very little poetic analysis, this book is a really great resource.
Disclaimers:
Some of the poems used to demonstrate various poetic forms do implicate sexual encounters or contain swear words. However, there are only a few.
All in all, if you want to learn about poetic forms with a brief history and very little poetic analysis, this book is a really great resource.
Disclaimers:
Some of the poems used to demonstrate various poetic forms do implicate sexual encounters or contain swear words. However, there are only a few.
April 6, 2019
A very helpful guide to writing a blank-verse poem, and am Ode, and/or a pastoral poem. This was such a great guide in all my poetry classes and could not sell it back to the school. I use it to this day. Mum, you can borrow it anytime you want to. 💚
Read
February 1, 2021A wonderful study of poetic forms through excellent poetry.
May 24, 2020
This is a really good overview of British and American poetry. I think it does a good job of breaking down the forms and choosing accessible poems. I don't know if Norton is still publishing this text, but I would definitely consider using it in the classroom.
April 29, 2012
I don't know why I bought this book, by this I mean what did I expect to mentally obtain? I like poetry, I even write poetry or attempt to write poetry. I suppose I thought that I'd learn something about poetry and honestly I looked and looked. (The poems in the book speak eloquently for themselves.) I saw poems I had never before met and I was pleased to make their visiting acquaintance while they were on Norton's Anthology World Tour. But I began to ask myself why I didn't like this book as I swished back and forth through the pages looking for clues. I feel the answer comes down to this: It's all in the box "How to Think About Poetry". For instance the two poems about war back to back it's true wars have a habit of doing this however was it necessary here? Different wars, different voices, different form, style you name it they were not the same only the "topic" united them, and I suppose readers are expected to come up with a paper comparing the two when there is perhaps little to compare and then why bother to compare the two? Ah, here we go, because this is an academic exercise which can throttle words or language hustling them into a labor camp. On the other hand should someone say hey I'll write a paper called "The Comparison of Two Poems on War from an Early 20th Century Pacifist View Point while Meditating in a Herbal Garden in Nantucket" I'd reply, "Hit me with your best shot!" I want out of the box.
January 8, 2012
This book has its positives and negatives. It is very nice to have one that goes over all different forms. It also goes through a nice explanation of changes in form over time. The two downsides are that, one, its examples are limited in what parts of the history they show and, two, The description of the different forms is not always as well explained as it could be. It was not hard for me to piece it together, but, for anyone looking at poetry for the first time, certain things could easily be misunderstood or missed altogether.
July 20, 2007
I haven't completely finished this one, but I really like the way it's laid out. A great reference for poetic forms. It has the technical aspects of each form, a history of it, how it is being used in a contemporary context, and examples of the form from its beginning to the present. I like having a good sampling of examples, so you can really get a feel for what the form can express and how. I would really like to own this one.
March 6, 2009
A wonderful, comprehensive anthology of form poetry. I used it in this semester's Advanced Poetry Writing course, and it's worked very well. The range of examples in each form is very good. Each form (elegy, ballad, sonnet, etc.) has an overview of the formal requirements, a brief history of the form, a brief essay on the form in contemporary poetry, samples poems in chronological order, and a brief case study.
March 30, 2014
It tries too hard to be two things at once. It has a decent collection of some poems but not enough to make it an anthology. It has a short explanation of the poetic forms but not enough to provide any true depth or insight. I like, however, that the author has taken his time to find plenty examples of villanelles, sestinas, and a couple other rare structures.
March 21, 2008
I would never swap this book. It's not that you can't find "how-to's" of forms everywhere, but the choices of poems that Mark Strand made to illustrate each form opens the heart and intellect simultaneously. A great inspiration!
August 12, 2009
I couldn't connect with this book. I really need contemporary examples, or have the author explain to me whats going on. I still value you it as a reference point, but i did not enjoy working through this!
April 13, 2011
It wasn't too great at telling you how to analyze poetry. However, the collection and range of poems partly makes up for it.
May 1, 2011
A nice collection of poetry forms, with examples heavily weighted towards modern poetry.
There is a very small amount of commentary, though I think the collection would have benefited from more.
There is a very small amount of commentary, though I think the collection would have benefited from more.
May 16, 2009
I will never be a poet and I know it.
September 20, 2020
For a book published by Norton as a Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms, this book is a disappointment, and some of the blame can be placed squarely on the shoulders of the two editors, poets Mark Strand, and Eavan Boland, for whom this was clearly not a labor of love.
The book starts out with promise, with a relatively short but interesting Introductory Statement about the history of poetry, and then two colorful but not very necessary personal statements by the two editors--though that space we eventually come to think would have been better used otherwise.
The organisation that follows is fine on the whole, being separated into four large sections.
The first section, "Verse Forms," gives 8 examples in the following order-- with which one might certainly quibble--of the Villanelle, the Sestina, the Pantoum, the Sonnet, the Ballad, Blank Verse, the Heroic Couplet, and finally the Stanza. In each of these eight categories a number of poems have been selected to illustrate as examples, with no commentary about the poems, except one chosen apparently at random for a vague, concluding commentary. Several poems are written in Middle English, with no explanation or annotations of any kind.
The second section "The Meter," is literally only 3 pages long. (This is not the place where you'll really learn anything more perfunctory than that an iambic pentameter is different from a spondee.) They refer to accentual vs accentual-syllabic meter on page 75, but don't explain these terms until page 160. They pass the buck by providing a short one-page Checklist of 'Further Reading on Meter.' Shocking in a book with this title, presumably intended for college students and the layperson.
Section three, misleadingly called "Shaping Forms," addresses three content or subject matters rather than form, in the following order: The Elegy, the Pastoral, and the Ode. Here there are brief though interesting introductions as well. But then follows another phalanx of poems, mostly with no annotations or comment whatsoever.
Finally, another group of poems gets its own section, called "Open Forms," in which the featured poets, all 20th century, use a variety of verse forms, and subjects in a mostly post-modern free-verse manner. Here one senses the two poet editors took some interest.
A minor but pervasive problem throughout The Making of a Poem is that the editors have mistakenly decided to include virtually no dates, for the poets or their works. But the far greater problem is the niggardly lack of supporting explanation about the poems. This would be fine in a compendium, but for a book purportedly aimed at imparting knowledge to the reader, the skimpiness of shared information is quite astounding, and the overall tone comes off as being both pretentious and willfully unhelpful. (Oh, you don't know Middle English? What don't you understand about Michael Palmer's Sonnet 'Now I see them'?) And one can almost hear the poets dickering with each other and the publisher about not having the time or inclination to do more than take a stab at this project. Ultimately this reflects not so much on the poet editors, but on the publishers, Norton.
Is there anything redeeming about this book? Yes, if you are tenacious and slog through it, you will find some of the great poems that always bear further reading. Finally, Strand and Boland do serve up a feast of powerful poems in their last section, which is where their interests clearly lie.
The index is useful, provides page numbers for poets, titles, and first lines.
In summation, Caveat Emptor.
The book starts out with promise, with a relatively short but interesting Introductory Statement about the history of poetry, and then two colorful but not very necessary personal statements by the two editors--though that space we eventually come to think would have been better used otherwise.
The organisation that follows is fine on the whole, being separated into four large sections.
The first section, "Verse Forms," gives 8 examples in the following order-- with which one might certainly quibble--of the Villanelle, the Sestina, the Pantoum, the Sonnet, the Ballad, Blank Verse, the Heroic Couplet, and finally the Stanza. In each of these eight categories a number of poems have been selected to illustrate as examples, with no commentary about the poems, except one chosen apparently at random for a vague, concluding commentary. Several poems are written in Middle English, with no explanation or annotations of any kind.
The second section "The Meter," is literally only 3 pages long. (This is not the place where you'll really learn anything more perfunctory than that an iambic pentameter is different from a spondee.) They refer to accentual vs accentual-syllabic meter on page 75, but don't explain these terms until page 160. They pass the buck by providing a short one-page Checklist of 'Further Reading on Meter.' Shocking in a book with this title, presumably intended for college students and the layperson.
Section three, misleadingly called "Shaping Forms," addresses three content or subject matters rather than form, in the following order: The Elegy, the Pastoral, and the Ode. Here there are brief though interesting introductions as well. But then follows another phalanx of poems, mostly with no annotations or comment whatsoever.
Finally, another group of poems gets its own section, called "Open Forms," in which the featured poets, all 20th century, use a variety of verse forms, and subjects in a mostly post-modern free-verse manner. Here one senses the two poet editors took some interest.
A minor but pervasive problem throughout The Making of a Poem is that the editors have mistakenly decided to include virtually no dates, for the poets or their works. But the far greater problem is the niggardly lack of supporting explanation about the poems. This would be fine in a compendium, but for a book purportedly aimed at imparting knowledge to the reader, the skimpiness of shared information is quite astounding, and the overall tone comes off as being both pretentious and willfully unhelpful. (Oh, you don't know Middle English? What don't you understand about Michael Palmer's Sonnet 'Now I see them'?) And one can almost hear the poets dickering with each other and the publisher about not having the time or inclination to do more than take a stab at this project. Ultimately this reflects not so much on the poet editors, but on the publishers, Norton.
Is there anything redeeming about this book? Yes, if you are tenacious and slog through it, you will find some of the great poems that always bear further reading. Finally, Strand and Boland do serve up a feast of powerful poems in their last section, which is where their interests clearly lie.
The index is useful, provides page numbers for poets, titles, and first lines.
In summation, Caveat Emptor.
April 30, 2018
The Making of a Poem is not a book which lends itself to pigeon-holing. It's not a standard anthology, though given its subtitle is 'A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms', it could be seen as a companion to The Norton Anthology of Poetry. Yet there's not much in common between those projects other than sharing some of the same poems. Nor is it intended as an exhaustive textbook, or as a beginner's introduction to poetry.
The niche the book fills is to provide a broad overview of forms of poetry from the Renaissance to the late 20th century, from highly specific forms such as the sestina and villanelle, through to more nebulous concepts such as eulogies and even a section on stanzas (which is more involved than one may expect).
The selection is about what one would expect from American editors, with a wide selection of American poets, a decent attempt to be representative of British and Irish poets (though still leaning heavily toward the big names more so than with the Americans), and the occasional ring-in from elsewhere such as Australia.
All sections feature a concise but informative introduction. A number of sections at their end also feature a brief 'close up' of one of the featured poems and some relevant biographical information on the poet.
There is also a brief glossary of terms. More useful, perhaps, is the lengthy section of short biographies of each of the many poets featured, usually with a handful of suggestions for readings of their work, and of criticism and biography.
For a particular kind of reader who already has a sound grasp and appreciation of the English language and an acquaintance with poetry but an ignorance of the technical aspects of poetics, this is a helpful book to expand their knowledge and point them in the direction of further learning.
The niche the book fills is to provide a broad overview of forms of poetry from the Renaissance to the late 20th century, from highly specific forms such as the sestina and villanelle, through to more nebulous concepts such as eulogies and even a section on stanzas (which is more involved than one may expect).
The selection is about what one would expect from American editors, with a wide selection of American poets, a decent attempt to be representative of British and Irish poets (though still leaning heavily toward the big names more so than with the Americans), and the occasional ring-in from elsewhere such as Australia.
All sections feature a concise but informative introduction. A number of sections at their end also feature a brief 'close up' of one of the featured poems and some relevant biographical information on the poet.
There is also a brief glossary of terms. More useful, perhaps, is the lengthy section of short biographies of each of the many poets featured, usually with a handful of suggestions for readings of their work, and of criticism and biography.
For a particular kind of reader who already has a sound grasp and appreciation of the English language and an acquaintance with poetry but an ignorance of the technical aspects of poetics, this is a helpful book to expand their knowledge and point them in the direction of further learning.
March 15, 2019
This is a very well-organized introduction to the various forms of poetry, as well as a solid overview of the history and development of poetry throughout the world. The book has no strong ideological bias, but does a good job of presenting conflicting schools of thought when it comes to where and how artists differ on what they believe to be good or bad poetry. For some people rhyming is passe, a vestige of another century. For others, nothing is quite as easy or fruitless as free verse (sometimes confused with blank verse).
You can tell much thought went into the selection not only of which poets to include, but which of their shorter poems would serve as the best representation of their work to a new audience. From Chaucer to Ginsberg to Angelou, samples of work and accompanying bios achieve a breezy quality without being glib. This is the kind of book that anyone interested in poetry can enjoy and appreciate, and come back to after reading, whether you're just a precocious high-school student or a Nobel Laureate.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and have no complaints. And since I'm a churlish, contentious chap by disposition that means someone went the extra mile while creating this book. Highest recommendation.
You can tell much thought went into the selection not only of which poets to include, but which of their shorter poems would serve as the best representation of their work to a new audience. From Chaucer to Ginsberg to Angelou, samples of work and accompanying bios achieve a breezy quality without being glib. This is the kind of book that anyone interested in poetry can enjoy and appreciate, and come back to after reading, whether you're just a precocious high-school student or a Nobel Laureate.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and have no complaints. And since I'm a churlish, contentious chap by disposition that means someone went the extra mile while creating this book. Highest recommendation.
December 19, 2023
A five-star because it's a compilation of some of the most well-known poems from the past few centuries. Great exposure for new poets. All in all, a slim book since it is not the book's aim to take its reader in-depth into each type of poem. Instead, it defines the major genres within poetry and includes about a half dozen or so selected works per category.
There is the Pastoral, the Villanelle, the Sestina, the Ballad, the Ode, the Elegy, the Open Form, among a few others. There is a concise, to-the-point explanation for how each form came to fruition: what the cultural influences and political conditions were at the time of each form's birth.
It is fascinating to learn how each one came to rise, and how it was or continues to be reshaped over time. Hence, the Open Form- which seems to subvert all preceding genres and unabashedly takes elements from each one. Contemporary poets are free to mix and match, creating their own kind of genre, sitting on top the shoulders of giants before them, who contributed to the bedrock and foundational layers of poem as a form of art. Not that contemporary poetry nullifies the need for originality, but that it possesses an advantage that other periods and genres throughout poetic history did not have.
A joy to read.
There is the Pastoral, the Villanelle, the Sestina, the Ballad, the Ode, the Elegy, the Open Form, among a few others. There is a concise, to-the-point explanation for how each form came to fruition: what the cultural influences and political conditions were at the time of each form's birth.
It is fascinating to learn how each one came to rise, and how it was or continues to be reshaped over time. Hence, the Open Form- which seems to subvert all preceding genres and unabashedly takes elements from each one. Contemporary poets are free to mix and match, creating their own kind of genre, sitting on top the shoulders of giants before them, who contributed to the bedrock and foundational layers of poem as a form of art. Not that contemporary poetry nullifies the need for originality, but that it possesses an advantage that other periods and genres throughout poetic history did not have.
A joy to read.
May 28, 2021
I am in no place to say this is a labour of love or not, but certainly the read was not very, uh, exciting?
The title "The Making of a Poem" suggests something very different, very distance from what it actually is, an anthology. What I mean to say is, it is not supposed to be read, it has to be studied. I didn't quite enjoy the book although I enjoy very much poetry. Collecting poems based on its form is understandable for specific purpose, but reading so many poems coming from vastly different historic background, expressing such diverse emotions, having entirely different purposes at the same time is almost schizophrenic.
Reading this book is not an enjoyment but a task.
The title "The Making of a Poem" suggests something very different, very distance from what it actually is, an anthology. What I mean to say is, it is not supposed to be read, it has to be studied. I didn't quite enjoy the book although I enjoy very much poetry. Collecting poems based on its form is understandable for specific purpose, but reading so many poems coming from vastly different historic background, expressing such diverse emotions, having entirely different purposes at the same time is almost schizophrenic.
Reading this book is not an enjoyment but a task.
November 10, 2017
I don't know why I bought this. We only had t read 90 pages for Dan Chaon's 201 Prose/Poetry workshop. Goddammit, I don't really want this book. It's an academic anthology, Christ. So, uh, it was interesting I guess, I could've used a bit more analysis, but I guess that's the teacher's job? It, uh, really had some examples and a lot of them and some had different styles. So cool, it did it's job, it didn't give me any love, I'm going to file it away forever now somewhere. Cool, cool, a limp 7/10.
May 6, 2018
Finally finished! A bittersweet end. I'm liking poetry anthologies more and more as I continue reading them--it's the perfect thing to pick up before writing in the morning or going to bed at night. The mix of poets, topics, and time periods keeps things interesting in this one, plus Strand and Boland make great commentary on poetic forms and origins. I hate to pick favorites, but I really enjoyed Rudyard Kipling's "Sestina of the Tramp-Royal" and TS Eliot's "The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock." Other than that, scattered and less-known favorites.
November 28, 2021
Brief summaries of the structure of various forms of poetry along with many examples of the form. Many of these poems were new to me and helped to reaffirm that personally I prefer the narrative form rather than riddles of metaphors. Interestingly several examples of each form are provided that do not strictly adhere to the form providing an interesting contrast.
Part II is dedicated to meter, but it is a mere 5 pages with no examples. This was frustrating to me as this is a crucial feature of the epic form, also given short shrift in this volume.
Part II is dedicated to meter, but it is a mere 5 pages with no examples. This was frustrating to me as this is a crucial feature of the epic form, also given short shrift in this volume.
January 24, 2023
Very helpful book that is helpful in understanding the wide variety of poetic forms. The explanations of what defines the characteristics and general purpose of the forms are quite good.
The general pattern of the book is a short discussion of the form and then several examples of poetry written in the given form. My only issue with the book (as a bit of a poetry neophyte) is that many of the examples don't really follow the form... I'd love to have each example poem, or at least a representative sample, discussed by the authors. That would make this a 5* book.
The general pattern of the book is a short discussion of the form and then several examples of poetry written in the given form. My only issue with the book (as a bit of a poetry neophyte) is that many of the examples don't really follow the form... I'd love to have each example poem, or at least a representative sample, discussed by the authors. That would make this a 5* book.
December 21, 2017
A friend gave me a copy of this book after learning that I had written a few poems of the pantoum variety. The pantoum form is included in this book, along with highly structured forms such as villanelle, sonnet and rhyming couplets and less structured forms such as free verse and ballad. Since receiving this book I have experimented with several of these, including rhyming couplet. Very interesting and worthwhile read.
April 24, 2019
Excellent "Poetry Forms 101" book. I've been reading and studying poetry for a while and this was the foundation I was missing. It covers the Verse forms (Villanelle, Sestina, Pantoum, Sonnet, Ballad, Blank Verse, Heroic Couplet and Stanza), Meter (briefly), Shaping forms (Elegy, Pastoral, Ode) and finally the more contemporary Open forms. Lots of great examples in each area. Highly recommend as both an intro book and reference book.
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