How to Be Well-Versed in Poetry

By E.O. Parrott and Xio Axelrod

Book Overview

A comprehensive guide to English and American poetry, via a series of parodies, pastiches and even, occasionally, a reverential tribute. This book also includes biographies of the major poets,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670823279
• ISBN13: 9780670823277
• Release Date: August 1991
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.6" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Ingeneous Anthology of Poet Forms

Clever boy E. O. Parrott and posse deliver us an inventive anthology of poet forms. How better to explain the poetic form than to have the poem itself explain its own form. It's out of print books such as this that make the case for Google's digital book initiative.

One of the most brilliant books I've ever read

"How to Be Well-Versed in Poetry" is difficult to define. While mostly humorous, in some ways it could be educational. It is definitely not a book to attempt with no knowledge of poetry, but some of the amusing poems on structure, meter, and technique can help to make the ideas more concrete. If you are a fan of the classics, you'll find it difficult to read without laughing out loud. "The Ravens Reply to Poe" and the abridged "Paradise Lost" (12 lines) are hysterical.A friend recently completed his degree in English Literature, and I thought this would be the perfect book to give as a gift. Unfortunately, it is out of print and hard to find. In the process of looking for it, I have found a number of others who would like a copy. If you are the publisher, PLEASE reprint this book! If you are a reader, I wish you luck in finding a copy before I buy all of them.

Perfect introduction to poetry for the novice

A compilation intended to teach by example, some of the many meters, rhyme schemes, poem-types. Light, humerous - well edited. Poets and non-poets alike wont stop laughing and learning.