How to read a poem

✍ Scribed by Eagleton, Terry

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; Blackwell Pub
• Year: 2006;2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 194
• Series: How to Study Literature
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Lucid, entertaining and full of insight,How To Read A Poemis designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader.


Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content.
Takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis.
Discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more.
Includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.

✦ Table of Contents

Title page......Page 5
Table of Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 9
Acknowledgements......Page 10
1.1 The end of criticism?......Page 13
1.2 Politics and rhetoric......Page 20
1.3 The death of experience......Page 29
1.4 Imagination......Page 34
2.1 Poetry and prose......Page 37
2.2 Poetry and morality......Page 40
2.3 Poetry and fiction......Page 43
2.4 Poetry and pragmatism......Page 50
2.5 Poetic language......Page 53
3.1 Literariness......Page 60
3.2 Strangement......Page 61
3.3 The semiotics of yury lotman......Page 64
3.4 The incarnational fallacy......Page 71
4.1 The meaning of form......Page 77
4.2 Form versus content......Page 82
4.3 Form as transcending content......Page 91
4.4 Poetry and performance......Page 100
4.5 Two american examples......Page 108
5.1 Is criticism just subjective?......Page 114
5.2 Meaning and subjectivity......Page 120
5.3 Tone, mood and pitch......Page 126
5.4 Intensity and pace......Page 130
5.5 Texture......Page 132
5.6 Syntax, grammar and punctuation......Page 133
5.7 Ambiguity......Page 136
5.8 Punctuation......Page 142
5.9 Rhyme......Page 143
5.10 Rhythm and metre......Page 147
5.11 Imagery......Page 150
6.1 William collins, ‘ode to evening’......Page 155
6.2 William wordsworth, ‘the solitary reaper’......Page 161
6.3 Gerard manley hopkins, ‘god’s grandeur’......Page 165
6.4 Edward thomas, ‘fifty faggots’......Page 169
6.5 Form and history......Page 173
Glossary......Page 177
Index......Page 181

✦ Subjects

Poetry;Nonfiction;Criticism;Literary Criticism;Literature;Reference;Philosophy;Theory;Lit Crit;Humanities;Language