The Craft of Poetry: A Primer in Verse

A wonderfully accessible handbook to the art of writing and reading poetryitself written entirely in verseReading this book, you get to know poetry from the inside, without the alienating or distracting effect of abstract definition. Knowledge of how poetry works is here imbibed not as a course of instruction but as a sustained pleasure.Bernard ODonoghue, University of Oxford, Winner of the Whitbread Prize for PoetryHow does poetry work? What should readers notice and look out for? Poet Lucy Newlyn demystifies the principles of the form, effortlessly illustrating key approaches and termsall through her own original verse. Each poem exemplifies an aspect of poetic craftbut read together they suggest how poetry can evoke a whole community and its way of life in myriad ways.In a series of beautiful meditations, Newlyn guides the reader through key aspects of poetry, from sonnets and haiku to volta and synecdoche. Avoiding glosses and notes, her poems are allowed to speak for themselves, and show that there are no limits to what poetry can communicate. Newlyns timeless verse will appeal to lovers of poetry as well as to practitioners, teachers, and students of all ages.OnomatopoeiaYoud play here all day if you had your waynear the steppingstones, in the clearestof rockpools, where water slaps and slips;where minnows dart, and a baby trout flopflips.