The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry - Tapa blanda

"Whether you're a new-comer to poetry or a longtime reader, Rhian Williams' The Poetry Toolkit offers welcomed guidance. The book ranges from the introductory (what does "stress" mean?) to the sophisticated and complex. Throughout, the author provides clear frameworks for interpreting how poetry's formal structures participate in the work of meaning-making. This book will relieve students' anxiety and deepen their understanding." - Dr Jason R. Rudy. Assistant Professor of English University of Maryland, College Park, USA Review in Times Higher Education Supplement, February 2009. The book is very easy to use, helpfully structured, and ideally suited to first-year undergraduate students of English poetry.--Forum for Modern Language Studies Vol.47, No.3 ."..I would certainly recommend this handbook for students who intend to pursue the study of poetry through their degree. The book is comprehensive in coverage and all the terms are fully explained and illustrated...I learned a great deal from the wealth of information contained here and will certainly make extensive use of the book as a teaching resource. Students will appreciate the clarity and concision of exposition and will note that the index and 'contents' page make it easy to find the information looked for...[Williams] illustrates close poetic analysis and offers several close reading exercises; and at the end of each section she gives suggestions for further reading and prompts for deeper thinking." English Vol. 58, 2009 'With a refreshing clarity and concision the volume traverses a field which has a reputation for being jargon-laden and intimidating. The simplicity of the book's style, however, sacrifices none of the complexities of its topic.' --Sanford Lakoff Rhian Williams's The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry is a readable, well-organised and highly accessible introduction to the study of poetry at the undergraduate level.--Sanford Lakoff "This is an inspirational guide to studying poetry, exciting for beginners and experienced readers alike. A tour de force of succinctness, clarity, and adroit cross referencing, it is not only a tour through every conceivable feature a reader could need - from the sonnet form to synloepha, from sesta rima to syllepsis - but an imaginative and arresting exposition of the way poets have used them, whether Dante or David Jones, Sappho or E E Cummings, Milton or Deryn Rees-Jones. Rhian Williams aims to set readers free by building confidence with genre and form, metre and rhyme, demystifying technicalities and terminology, providing follow up reading, and appealing to curiosity and the sense of experiment. She urges readers to read poems aloud, to listen to sounds, mark rhythms, and imagine themselves inside the poem before moving out to its history and context. After reading this book newcomers to poetry will learn to love reading and writing about it." - Isobel Armstrong FBA and Emeritus Professor of English at Birkbeck, University of London 'The Poetry Toolkit will be a valued for many readers, both academic and 'general'. Every reader will learn something from it - it is rare to have riches such as this in a single textbook.' WordPlay 'Whether you're a new-comer to poetry or a longtime reader, Rhian Williams' The Poetry Toolkit offers welcomed guidance. The book ranges from the introductory (what does "stress" mean?) to the sophisticated and complex. Throughout, the author provides clear frameworks for interpreting how poetry's formal structures participate in the work of meaning-making. This book will relieve students' anxiety and deepen their understanding' Writing Magazine

Getting to grips with poetry and its terminology can be one of the most intimidating parts of literary study. The Poetry Toolkit helps with this problem by giving clear and concise guidance about reading and discussing poetry in an easy-to-use format. By providing accessible commentary on the formal traditions of poetry across the ages and by emphasizing the empowering effect of technical vocabulary, this book encourages confidence and enjoyment. Its simple and clear explanations of key terms, genres and concepts enable readers to develop a richer, more sophisticated approach to reading, thinking and writing about poems. Moving from introductory overviews to short sections on key concepts, forms and topics, each entry includes a technical definition, a review of its historical and cultural significance, illustrative examples from a range of poems and finally additional reading and suggestions for further work. The Poetry Toolkit offers a practical solution to the difficulties of reading and writing about poetry. It offers any student of poetry the key tools needed to read, study and write about poetry with confidence.