How to Write a Poem
How to Study Literature
An innovative introduction to writing poetry designed for students
of creative writing and budding poets alike.
* Challenges the reader's sense of what is possible in a
poem.
* Traces the history and highlights the potential of
poetry.
* Focuses on the fundamental principles of poetic construction,
such as: Who is speaking? Who are they speaking to? Why does their
speaking take this form?
* Considers both experimental and mainstream approaches to
contemporary poetry.
* Consists of fourteen chapters, making it suitable for use over
one semester.
* Encourages readers to experiment with their poetry.
Acknowledgements.
Introduction.
1. The Question of Address.
2. Viewpoint.
3. The Question of Voices.
4. The Question of Scale.
5. Uses of Repetition.
6. Image.
7. Short Lines.
8. Long Lines.
9. Diction.
10. Uses of Syntax.
11. Tone.
12. Traditional Forms: Ode.
13. Traditional Forms: Epistle.
14. The Question of Background.
15. Conclusion: The Question of Variety.
Index
Introduction.
1. The Question of Address.
2. Viewpoint.
3. The Question of Voices.
4. The Question of Scale.
5. Uses of Repetition.
6. Image.
7. Short Lines.
8. Long Lines.
9. Diction.
10. Uses of Syntax.
11. Tone.
12. Traditional Forms: Ode.
13. Traditional Forms: Epistle.
14. The Question of Background.
15. Conclusion: The Question of Variety.
Index
"John Redmond's "How to Write a Poem" contains no false
notes. He does not patronise his reader with easy examples or
workshop games, but lights on his subject with elegant pragmatism
and humility. His overall argument arises from a very personal yet
wholly professional sense of poetry as an art form in practice, and
his examples are informed by deep reading and writerly intuition. I
consider the book a small masterpiece of clarity, economy and
experience. It brings light to poetry as something made: something
real and realised." David Morley, Warwick University
"The examples throughout the book are contemporary and
provocative in the most helpful sense. ... [Redmond] clearly loves
poems, enough to show you in detail how they work." Poetry
News
notes. He does not patronise his reader with easy examples or
workshop games, but lights on his subject with elegant pragmatism
and humility. His overall argument arises from a very personal yet
wholly professional sense of poetry as an art form in practice, and
his examples are informed by deep reading and writerly intuition. I
consider the book a small masterpiece of clarity, economy and
experience. It brings light to poetry as something made: something
real and realised." David Morley, Warwick University
"The examples throughout the book are contemporary and
provocative in the most helpful sense. ... [Redmond] clearly loves
poems, enough to show you in detail how they work." Poetry
News
John Redmond is the author of one collection of poems, Thumb's Width (2001), which was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, and he features as one of 'The New Irish Poets' in a Bloodaxe anthology of that name. He was previously Assistant Editor of the long-running poetry magazine Thumbscrew, and writes reviews on a regular basis for the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian and Poetry Review. He is Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Liverpool and, previously, was Visiting Assistant Professor at Macalester College in St Paul, Minnesota.