Poetry

257 Pages·2011·0.933 MB·English

by  Strachan, John R., Terry, Richard G

P o e t r y

S e c o n d e d i t i o n
John Strachan
and richard terry
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POETRY
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POETRY
Second Edition
John Strachan and Richard Terry
EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© John Strachan and Richard Terry, 2000, 2011
Edinburgh University Press Ltd
22 George Square, Edinburgh
First edition published by
Edinburgh University Press in 2000
Typeset in Bembo
by Norman Tilley Graphics, and
printed and bound in Great Britain
by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
A CIP record for this book is available
from the British Library
ISBN 978 0 7486 4407 0 (hardback)
ISBN 978 0 7486 4401 8 (paperback)
The right of John Strachan and Richard Terry
to be identified as authors of this work
has been asserted in accordance with
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Preface to the second edition viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
1 The key words of poetry 7
1.1 What is poetry? 8
1.2 The key words of English poetic history 13
1.3 Exercises 20
2 The shape of poetry 23
2.1 The aesthetics of print 23
2.2 Pictograms and concrete poems 24
2.3 Visible but unreadable 28
2.4 Layout and punctuation 30
2.5 The poetic stanza and stanzaic form 33
2.6 Exercises 44
3 The sound of poetry 47
3.1 Poetic sound effects: an overview 47
3.2 Onomatopoeia 51
3.3 Sound-patterning 54
3.4 Rhyme 56
3.5 The ‘orthodox’ rhyme 59
3.6 Some ‘unorthodox’ rhymes 60
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vi Poetry
3.7 Some indeterminacies of rhyme 65
3.8 Rhyme and meaning 67
3.9 Exercises 69
4 Metre and rhythm 72
4.1 Complexities in the study of metre 73
4.2 The key metrical units 74
4.3 Metrical regularity and variance 77
4.4 ‘Missing’ and ‘extra’ syllables 79
4.5 Feet 80
4.6 Iambic metre 80
4.7 Trochaic metre 88
4.8 Dactylic metre 92
4.9 Anapaestic metre 94
4.10 Occasional feet 95
4.11 Metrical verse lines 97
4.12 Free verse 104
4.13 Exercises 108
5 Comparisons and associations 111
5.1 Literal v. figurative 111
5.2 Metaphor and simile 112
5.3 Metonymy and synecdoche 115
5.4 Tenor, vehicle and ground 118
5.5 Conceits and extended similes 123
5.6 Dead and dying metaphors 127
5.7 Riddle poems 132
5.8 Exercises 134
6 The words of poetry 137
6.1 Linguistic diversity 137
6.2 Poetic diction 140
6.3 Poetry of the everyday language 145
6.4 Creating your own language 147
6.5 Diction and argots 149
6.6 Poems about language 153
6.7 Poetic intertextuality 156
6.8 Forms of allusion 159
6.9 Creative quotation and poetic imitation 164
6.10 The Queen’s (and other people’s) English 168
6.11 Exercises 172
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Contents vii
7 Writing poetry 174
7.1 Why write poetry? 175
7.2 Write a poem 180
7.3 Feedback on your poetry: creative writing classes, poetry
workshops and writers’ groups 183
7.4 Publishing your poetry 186
7.5 Poets on poetry 189
7.6 Forty practical tips on writing poetry 194
7.7 Exercises 198
A glossary of poetical terms 201
Metre exercise: answers 227
Further reading 232
Index 236
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Preface to the second edition
This new edition of Poetryhas been revised and expanded from the book’s first
edition, which was published in 2000. Some changes to the text are small;
others are substantial. Though the first five chapters of the book have been
revised, most of the alterations to the text here are minor and the most
important changes to the study are in its final chapters. We have introduced
three new subsections to Chapter 6, ‘The words of poetry’, on poetic inter-
textuality, forms of allusion, and creative quotation and poetic imitation.
We have also added a number of entries to the Glossary of poetical terms
and brought in a new section, ‘Further reading’, which offers summary
bibliographies for the book’s seven chapters and Glossary.
The most substantial additions in this edition are the inclusion of exercises
at the end of each chapter – which can be undertaken in the classroom or in
private study – and a new chapter, ‘Writing poetry’. The decade since the first
publication of Poetry has seen a rapid development of creative writing courses
in British universities, most of which attend to poetry, and the concluding
chapter here reflects the importance of this development, discussing why
poets write and offering advice on composing poetry. This is now the only
introductory book of its kind to include analysis of both the study and the
writing of poetry. The volume’s emphasis has always been a practical one. In its
new edition, alongside its consideration of how poetry works, there is a detailed
attention to how poems are written.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express thanks to Jackie Jones, Carol Macdonald and James
Dale for the help received from Edinburgh University Press during the
preparation of the original and second editions of this book. Our thanks also
go to our students, past and present, who contributed greatly to our sense of
what a textbook on the study of poetry might best contain.
The authors are grateful to the copyright holders for permission to quote
extracts from the following poems: John Agard and Serpent’s Tail Ltd
for ‘Listen Mr Oxford Don’, from John Agard, Mangoes and Bullets (1985);
John Ashbery and Carcanet Press Limited for lines from ‘The Dong with the
Luminous Nose’, from Wakefulness (1998): © 1988, 1998, 1999 by John
Ashbery; reprinted also by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., on behalf
of the author; Colette Bryce and Picador for ‘Wish You Were’, from Colette
Bryce, The Heel of Bernadette (2000);W.W. Norton & Company Ltd for ‘l(a)’
and ‘o sweet spontaneous’, from E. E. Cummings, Complete Poems 1904–1962,
edited by George J. Firmage, by permission of W. W. Norton & Company Ltd
© 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust and George James
Firmage; Carol Ann Duffy and Picador for ‘Mrs Sisyphus’, from Carol Ann
Duffy, The World’s Wife (1999); Faber and Faber and Harcourt Inc. for ‘The
Hollow Men’, from T. S. Eliot, Collected Poems 1909–1962 (1962); Penguin
Putnam Inc., Laurence Pollinger Ltd and the Estate of Frieda Lawrence Ravagli
for ‘Gloire de Dijon’, from The Complete Poems of D. H. Lawrence (1957); Tom
Leonard and Galloping Dog Press for ‘Just ti Let Yi No’, from Tom Leonard,
Intimate Voices: Selected Work 1965–1983(1984); Carcanet Press Limited for‘The
Loch Ness Monster’s Song’, from Edwin Morgan, Collected Poems(1982); Faber
and Faber and HarperCollins for ‘You’re’, from Sylvia Plath, Collected Poems