Introduction 1
About This Book 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 4
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Reading and Understanding Poetry 5
Chapter 1: Knowing Poetry When You See It 7
Poetry as Art and Exploration 8
Why Do People Write Poetry? 9
Creating an intense emotional experience 10
Drawing attention to something real 12
Bringing Poetry into Your Life 13
Online is just fine 13
Checking out libraries 15
Browsing through bookstores 16
Attending readings 17
Writing Poetry 18
Becoming a poet 18
Keeping a poetry journal 19
Chapter 2: Reading Poetry Aloud 21
Why You Should Read Poems Aloud 21
Good Habits for Good Reading 23
Having the right tools handy 23
Reading silently first 24
Noting surprises and unfamiliar words 24
Finding an engaged, conversational tone 25
Resisting the urge to rush 25
Pausing for power 27
Paying attention to line-endings 28
Treating white space as time 29
Doing it more than once 31
Chapter 3: Identifying Subject, Tone, and Narrative 33
Understanding Subject and Tone 34
Subject: A natural starting point 34
Tone: It's got attitude 35
Reading for subject and tone 38
Figuring Out a Poem's Narrative 39
Speaker: The person we're listening to 39
Setting: Knowing where you are 41
Situation: Circumstances and their victims 42
Plot: What goes on 42
Character: What kind of person would do a thing like that? 42
Chapter 4: Tuning in to Language 45
Understanding Figurative Language 46
Opening the Poet's Figurative Toolbox 48
Symbols: When A stands for B, which brings in C 48
Similes: My love is like a can of tuna 52
Metaphors: My love is a can of tuna 53
Allusions: If you know, you know 55
Music: What You Hear, Feel, and See 56
Orchestrating sound 57
Recognizing the varieties of rhyme 59
Feeling rhythm and measuring meter 61
Shape and flow: Visual rhythm 65
Chapter 5: Practicing the Art of Interpretation 67
Reading for Discovery 68
Sense: Getting direct and literal 68
Music: Sounds and rhythms that lead to meaning 73
Speculating as You Read 77
Mastering Speculation 78
Understanding the literal 79
Getting at what's implied 80
Speculating about what's implied 80
Searching for the Subject 81
Tuning In to Tone 82
Being Alive to Language 83
Following the Music 83
Considering Narrative Elements 85
Interpreting "The Knot" by Susan Stewart 87
Part 2: An Intelligent Hustle Through Poetic History 89
Chapter 6: Connecting with Poems from the Past 91
Gathering the Tools You Need 92
Understanding Older Poetry 93
Meeting the poet 93
Discovering the poet's life and times 95
Mastering unfamiliar language 98
Reading Older Poetry: Three Basics 102
Chapter 7: From Enheduanna to the Golden Ages 105
The Pre-Homeric Period (3000 bc-1000 bc) 106
Mesopotamian poetry 106
Egyptian poetry 107
The beginnings of poetry in India 107
The Biblical and Homeric Periods (1000 bc-400 bc) 110
Biblical poetry 110
Homeric poetry 111
The beginnings of Chinese poetry 113
The Archaic and Classical Periods (750 bc-ad 476) 113
Greek poetry 113
Latin poetry 115
Late Antiquity and Golden Ages (ad 476-1000) 116
The Manyoshu and Japanese poetry 116
The poetry of India 117
Arabic poetry 117
China: The T'ang Dynasty 118
Old English 119
Chapter 8: The Middle Ages through the 18th Century 121
Poetry of the Middle Ages (1000-1450) 122
Arabic and Persian verse - and the R¿m¿ supernova 123
Chinese and Japanese poetry 126
The European Renaissance (1450-1674) 127
The English Renaissance 127
Poetry on three continents 127
The 18th Century 129
Reason, science, and a changing world: The English Enlightenment 129
Japan: The haiku tradition continues 130
Chapter 9: Poetry During the Industrial Revolution 131
The Romantic Period 131
The Victorian Period 134
The Symbolist movement 135
American poetry: Whitman and Dickinson 136
Shiki and the New Style in Japan 138
Chapter 10: The Century of Poetry 139
The Modern Era (1901-1945) 140
Rabindranath Tagore 140
William Butler Yeats 141
Ezra Pound 142
Hilda Doolittle 143
Marianne Moore 143
T.S Eliot 144
Marina Tsvetaeva 145
André Breton 146
Pablo Neruda 146
Léopold Sédar Senghor 147
The Postmodern Era (1945-1989) 148
Poetry from the Spanish-speaking world 151
Women's voices 153
Experimental poetry 154
Performance poetry 157
The Global Era (1989-2001) 160
Chapter 11: Poetry in the Digital Age. 163
New Voices and Viewpoints 164
Collaborative Poetry 165
Poetry and the Other Arts 166
Translation 166
New and Old Forms 167
Chill subs and Other Poetry Communities Online 169
Part 3: Writing Poetry and Finding Community 173
Chapter 12: Calling the Muse 175
How to Live If You Want to Be a Poet 176
Reading Like a Poet 176
Writing Like a Poet 177
Finding the right time and place to write 177
Recognizing the creative urge 179
Empty page, full imagination: Getting started 180
Keeping a journal (again!) 181
Moving from journal entry to poem 182
Choosing subjects 185
Rewriting until it hurts a lot better 186
From "City Bus" to "City Bus": A case study in revision 187
Getting Connected to the World of Poetry 190
Chapter 13: Working with Traditional Forms of Verse 193
Ballads 194
Psalms 195
Sonnets 196
Ghazals 200
Haiku and Tanka 201
Chapter 14: Writing Open-Form Poetry 203
Working Toward a Definition 203
What open-form poetry is 205
What open-form poetry isn't 206
Knowing What Makes It Poetry 206
Using Open Forms in Your Own Poetry 209
Going for the breath: Framing individual lines 209
Treating the page as a field 211
Chapter 15: Writing Exercises and Prompts for Poets 217
Making Your Journal Your Office 218
Trying a Journal Exercise 218
Spotting and Breaking Habits 220
Using Description 221
Unleashing Divergent Thinking 221
Mining descriptive texts to find your own way of writing 222
Experimenting with different forms 222
Starting with a prose essay 222
Rewriting well-known texts 222
Pulling from a grab-bag of ideas 223
Using techniques of chance and collage 223
Mistranslating (on purpose) 224
Thinking about transitions 225
Getting ideas by taking a walk 225
Using language from one subject to write about another 226
From Poems for the Writing: Three Prompts, Poems, and Processes 226
"The unanswerable letter"; Response by Karen Chase 226
"Bibliomancy"; Response by Luray Gross 228
"Fibonacci Poem": Response by Don Riggs 231
Revising Your Poetry 232
Hiding half of your poem from sight 232
Reworking poems you don't like 233
Collaborating with Other Writers 233
Chapter 16: Going Public 235
Starting a Reading or Writing Group 235
Getting started 236
Discovering ways to spend your meetings 236
Reading Your Poetry in Public 237
Readings for everybody 238
Open mics 242
Poetry slams 243
Participating in Your Local Poetry Community: Good Old Analog! 245
Being an Entrepreneurial Poet 248
Eyeballs and ears 248
The post-Pandemic poetry world 252
Finding Resources and Community 256
Chapter 17: Getting Published 259
Submitting Your Poetry to Lit Mags 260
Knowing when you're ready 260
Following the Poetry For Dummies action plan for poetry market research 262
Submitting your poetry 271
Keeping a submissions journal 276
Pursuing Other Kinds of Publication 277
Collections and contests 278
Chapbooks, pamphlets, and broadsides 278
Self-publishing in print 279
Part 4: the Part of Tens 285
Chapter 18: Ten Poems Worth Memorizing 287
Chapter 19: Ten Love Poems 295
Part 5: Appendixes 303
Appendix A: Glossary 305
Appendix B: The Poetry For Dummies Reading List 315
The Pre-Homeric Period 316
The Biblical Period 316
The Archaic and Classical Periods 316
Late Antiquity and Golden Ages 317
The Middle Ages 317
The Renaissance 318
The Enlightenment and the Eighteenth Century 319
Romantic Poetry, the Victorian Period, Symbolism, and Whitman and Dickinson 319
The Modern Era 320
Postmodernism 320
The Global Era 321
The Digital Era 321
Modern and Contemporary Poetry 322
Permissions 323
Index 331
