Grounded in craft, this book was composed on three premises: That the study and modeling of great poems is integral to understanding poetry and learning to write poems, that scaffolded learning builds a writer’s and a reader’s confidence and knowledge base and increases learning, and that teachers and facilitators of poetry can and should build learning environments we call “our hearts in a safe place.” Each chapter contains an introduction to a main focus, new terms, a model poem, an explication, short prompts heuristic to each chapter’s focus, and a model exercise. Student poem samples are included in each chapter. The last chapter discusses syllabi, portfolios and alternate grading. A Heart’s Craft differs from other poetry” how to books” because it combines art with pedagogy in a unique and effective fashion.

An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry’s accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder In Why Poetry, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it is that poetry—and poetry alone—can do. Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with it. Zapruder explores what poems are, and how we can read them, so that we can, as Whitman wrote, “possess the origin of all poems,” without the aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading poetry can help us to lead our lives with greater meaning and purpose. Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through Zapruder’s personal experience of coming to the form, Why Poetry is engaging and conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being mistaken for knowledge. While he provides a simple reading method for approaching poems and illuminates concepts like associative movement, metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.

Stephen Henderson has edited an anthology of the best of black poetry with an emphasis on the poetry of the 60's. But this anthology differs from others in significant ways. First, the introduction is extensive, giving tentative answers to such questions as: What makes a poem black? Who decides? What criteria does one use? The author's thesis is that the new black poetry's main referents are black speech and black music. Second, the author explores the many forms that black poets use, commenting on what is black technically in the poetry. Third, the poems anthologized include examples from the oral (folk sermon, spirituals, blues, ballad, rap) as well as the literary tradition. -- From publisher's description.

With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built-meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space. "Stunning" (Los Angeles Times). Index.

The Alchemy of Poetry promises access to some of the greatest poems ever written. It demonstrates the various ways a close reading or analytical interpretation can be conducted and in so doing provides tools for a life time of poetry reading. This text is personal. It establishes a relationship between the reader and the poem and myself. Why? It is in relationships that we are able to most effectively learn and teach and grow. I think great Art belongs to everyone; thus, it is crucial that we continue the dialogue between ourselves and the poem. It is in this dialogue that we witness the alchemy of poetry; the way it transmutes from language form and feature to a universal elixir, an undiscovered gold and most significantly, "A thing of beauty". Poetry makes sense of life, it offers us truths, it brings us unimagined worlds and it liberates our pain. I have selected 160 poems that you cannot live your life without!Poetry offers ritual and cadence; sacrifice and secrets. Poetry offers a nation state, a place within a place when it no longer confers sovereignty upon you. Poetry is sacred and profane and thus it is at once sublime and mighty. It is audacious and disturbing but always - and this applies to all great poetry - yours. Mine. Ours. Indeed, what is the point of living if there is no Art? And poetry is the most concentrated of all Art. It is the oldest of all literary forms. Without poetry we are an idiotic uncivilized people telling tales "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing". Poetry is, in one crowded hour, the only one in the room. So, we read poetry to face the truth. To stand there and dig in, to stumble over words we don't get, to find a phrase that flicks a light on in our memory, to cat-paw over and over an image that was laid down long ago. Most of all, we read poetry to remind ourselves of what really matters. To witness the soaring light that tears up our small lives.

An award-winning poet offers a brilliant introduction to the joys--and challenges--of the genre In Don't Read Poetry, award-winning poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt offers an accessible introduction to the seemingly daunting task of reading, understanding, and appreciating poetry. Burt dispels preconceptions about poetry and explains how poems speak to one another--and how they can speak to our lives. She shows readers how to find more poems once they have some poems they like, and how to connect the poetry of the past to the poetry of the present. Burt moves seamlessly from Shakespeare and other classics to the contemporary poetry circulated on Tumblr and Twitter. She challenges the assumptions that many of us make about "poetry," whether we think we like it or think we don't, in order to help us cherish--and distinguish among--individual poems. A masterful guide to a sometimes confounding genre, Don't Read Poetry will instruct and delight ingénues and cognoscenti alike.

James A. Grimshaw, Jr., brings together for the first time more than 350 letters exchanged by two scholars who altered the way literature is taught in this country. The selected letters focus on the development of their five major textbooks--the rationale for selections, the details involved in obtaining permissions and preparing indexes, and the demands of meeting deadlines. More important, these letters reveal their attitudes toward literature, teaching, and scholarship. Providing insight into two of the most influential literary minds of this century, these letters show two men who were deeply involved in research and writing, and who were committed to a life of travel, conversation, and learning. Their zest for life and their love of literature explain, in part, their uncanny ability to persevere and to succeed. Yet their human qualities are also present in the letters, which bring Brooks and Warren to life as rare individuals able to sustain a deep, lifelong friendship. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren will help readers better understand the critical work of Brooks and the creative work of Warren. Students and teachers of American literature will find this book indispensable.

From the National Book Critics Circle Award–winning poet and critic: “A lovely book, full of joy and wisdom.” —The Baltimore Sun How to Read a Poem is an unprecedented exploration of poetry, feeling, and human nature. In language at once acute and emotional, Edward Hirsch describes why poetry matters and how we can open up our imaginations so that its message can make a difference. In a marvelous reading of verse from around the world, including work by Pablo Neruda, Elizabeth Bishop, Wallace Stevens, and Sylvia Plath, among many others, Hirsch discovers the true meaning of their words and ideas and brings their sublime message home into our hearts. “Hirsch has gathered an eclectic group of poems from many times and places, with selections as varied as postwar Polish poetry, works by Keats and Christopher Smart, and lyrics from African American work songs . . . Hirsch suggests helpful strategies for understanding and appreciating each poem. The book is scholarly but very readable and incorporates interesting anecdotes from the lives of the poets.” —Library Journal “The answer Hirsch gives to the question of how to read a poem is: Ecstatically.” —Boston Book Review “Hirsch’s magnificent text is supported by an extensive glossary and superb international reading list.” —Booklist “If you are pretty sure you don’t like poetry, this is the book that’s bound to change your mind.” —Charles Simic, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The World Doesn’t End