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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.008
EAN: 9780393321784
ISBN: 0393321789
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 448
Publication Date: 2001-04
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company

Two beloved and esteemed poets have collaborated on this intimate and useful anthology illuminating the history, practice, and wonder of our most elusive art. Intended for all those who love poetry, including teachers, readers, writers, and students, The Making of a Poem will be especially valued by those who feel that an understanding of form—sonnet, ballad, villanelle, sestina, etc.—would enhance their appreciation of poetry, but are daunted by the terms, the names, and the histories of various poetic forms. This anthology draws the reader in, by example and explanation, to the excitement and entertainment of these forms. It explains their origins, traces their development, and shows examples from the past and present. In a feature called "The form at a glance" the reader can try his or her own hand writing a particular form. Included are essays by each of the editors describing their own personal journeys toward a form for their poetic voice. Above all, this anthology shows that poetic form is a continuing adventure. Contemporary poets can be seen here trying out the same forms that poets used hundreds of years ago, but in the new circumstances of a complicated modern world. In this way poetic form is illustrated not as a series of rules, but as a passionate conversation in which every reader of poetry can become involved.

Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Plenty of poems-very little instruction
Review: If you are looking for teaching on the mechanics of different forms this book is about fives pages from being a door stop. Don't waste your money.

If all you need are examples of the different forms this is your book.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: A Good Intro
Review: This was a good introduction to poetic forms, giving clear definitions of villanelles, sestinas, sonnets, etc. As a matter of personal choice, I found some of the poems not particularly apt for the poetic form they were trying to define: why was Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn" in the "Pastoral" chapter and not the "Ode" chapter? The editors seemed to make arbitrary choices that were sometimes off-kilter. Otherwise, the selection of poems was quite good. As for the complaints about Eurocentrism...let's be honest if not politically correct: nearly all poetic forms in classical poetry were created by Eurocentrist poets. And this book is about classical forms of poetry and how contemporary and modern poets adapted to those forms.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: for high school
Review: While objections might be appropriate for high-end poets and advanced university students, I have found this book quite helpful at an introductory high school level. It is short and to the point, and does not overly discourage a young student trying to become acquainted with traditional poetic forms.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Better Books Available
Review: This book is about writing poetry. It is not about the content of a poem, it is about the formal structure. The authors compile descriptions of seven poetic forms (eight, if you count stanza as a form, as the authors inexplicably do) and three thematic categories. Following each description is a long list of examples of the forms, from the point when each form entered English up to... well, up to...

And that's where we run into the first problem with this book. There are good poets out there writing sonnets and sestinas today, but if the authors are to be believed, formal poetry came to a juddering halt when Robert Frost died. As a reader of poetry, I like Dylan Thomas, Robert Browning, and William Shakespeare, but if a student learning poetry uses this book as the yardstick of where these forms are right now, that student will at best be over forty years out of date.

That's not to suggest that the selections of poems in this book aren't good. They are. Not only do the compilers select the best poets of days gone by, but they select the best examples of the work of those poets. But the selection is slanted in favor of the past. To be really useful a book needs to include both a historical overview of a form and a synoptic look at where poetry lives right now.

Likewise, the selection of forms is brief. I like villanelles and ballads as much as the next guy, but would it really break the editors to dedicate a little more space to ghazals, cinquains, triolets, and haiku? The selection of forms in this book is very introductory, limited to the forms the editors could find in English in profusion. Perhaps somebody fairly new to poetry, who hasn't learned what the forms are and how they work, will find this collection useful. But a poet eager to make the leap beyond mere beginner status will be frustrated with this book.

This book isn't bad. What it does focus on, it focuses on in depth and fairly globally (as much as limiting the selection to English can be global). For beginners, this book may well be a handy introduction to versification. But for those who have been writing for a while, and those who want to move beyond the beginning, there are better books available. Consider, for instance, Miller Williams' Patterns of Poetry: An Encyclopedia of Forms or Barbara Drake's Writing Poetry. Take your time to comparison-shop, ask more experienced poets, and just read. Because you will find books that suit your needs far better than this one.

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Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Thumbs Down
Review: The examples are archaic, the introductory material weak, the discussion of how to write cursory.

Save your money for STRONG MEASURES by Dacey and Jauss, a much more expensive book, but worth it many times over.

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