The Poetry Handbook" is a lucid & entertaining guide to the poet's craft & an invaluable introduction to practical criticism for students. Chapters on each element of poetry from metre to gender offer a wide-ranging general account & end by looking at two or three poems from a small group (including works by Donne Elizabeth Bishop Geoffrey Hill & Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott) to build up sustained analytical readings. Thorough & compact with notes "ations supplemented by detailed reference to the Norton Anthology of Poetry & a companion website with texts links & further discussion The Poetry Handbook is indispensable for all school & undergraduate students of English. A final chapter addresses examinations of all kinds & sample essays by undergraduates are posted on the website. Critical & scholarly terms are italicised & clearly explained both in the text & in a complete glossary; the volume also
Includes:: suggestions for further reading. The first edition widely praised by teachers & students showed how the pleasures of poetry are heightened by rigorous understanding & made that understanding readily available. This second edition
- revised expanded updated & supported by a new companion website
- confirm " The Poetry Handbook" as the best guide to poetry available in English."