Art of Poetry Writing

By William Packard

Book Overview

Poet, novelist, scholar, translator, playwright, and teacher, William Packard has known every side of a writer's life. As founder and editor ofThe New York Quarterly,a national magazine devoted to the craft of poetry, he reads some 50,000 poems each year-most of them sadly deficient in sound, metrics, form, voice, and quality. This book is written to help poets address the central concerns of their craft and art. Lively, inspiring, opinionated, and sometimes curmudgeonly,The Art of Poetry Writingcovers a broad range of topics, both technical and personal, that all poets need to consider: -Poetic devices and diction -Verse forms and free verse -Rhyme and metrics -Creative vision and revision -The benefits and problems of workshops and writing classes -30 writing challenges to develop form and style and technique -When to seek publication-and when not to -What to read while writing -The life of the poet, including keeping a journal, giving readings, applying for grants, and more. Remarks by and excerpts from the work of Coleridge, Wordsworth, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Auden, Stevens, Moore, Thomas, Ginsberg, Sexton, Plath, Dickey, Bukowski, Ashbery, and dozens of other poets make this an essential companion for students, teachers and anyone who writes or reads poetry.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 031207641X
• ISBN13: 9780312076412
• Release Date: June 1992
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

The Best Book for Poets.

This is probably one of the better Poetry Guides in existence. Although it reads more as a conversation, or a lecture than other books its one of the best books to read. The history of poetry section in particular is well written and well informed. I would recommend this book for any poet starting out as it is a great guide to the world of poetry.

A Writing Bible

This book was everything I could have wanted; it is comprehensive in its listing of genres, forms, poetry devices and history, and has some good psychological pointers about the writer's life and the need to allow yourself solitude and time away from workshop madness. Its lists of books to read while writing, before writing and just plain writing literacy are superb, and its "writing challenges" (exercises for writing poems when you're stumped) are super. I'm working my way through them, day by day.

Nice technical reference

I found that this book had little to say to the 'soul' of the poet but a tremendous amount to say about the craft. I first picked this book up several years ago, and since then the chapter on 'Verse Forms' is something that has stayed with me -- whenever I wonder just what a 'sestina' or a 'villanelle' is I pick up this book. I have also found the example poems Packard uses to be unusual and therefore interesting and occasionally inspiring. It is a reference and it's not a 'feel-good' book, but it's one I value on my shelves, and which I've given to other people who want a little more discipline in their poems than free verse provides.