Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is 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.
Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
1 The Functions of Criticism 1
1 The End of Criticism? 1
2 Politics and Rhetoric 8
3 The Death of Experience 17
4 Imagination 22
2 What is Poetry? 25
1 Poetry and Prose 25
2 Poetry and Morality 28
3 Poetry and Fiction 31
4 Poetry and Pragmatism 38
5 Poetic Language 41
3 Formalists 48
1 Literariness 48
2 Estrangement 49
3 The Semiotics of Yury Lotman 52
4 The Incarnational Fallacy 59
4 In Pursuit of Form 65
1 The Meaning of Form 65
2 Form versus Content 70
3 Form as Transcending Content 79
4 Poetry and Performance 88
5 Two American Examples 96
5 How to Read a Poem 102
1 Is Criticism Just Subjective? 102
2 Meaning and Subjectivity 108
3 Tone, Mood and Pitch 114
4 Intensity and Pace 118
5 Texture 120
6 Syntax, Grammar and Punctuation 121
7 Ambiguity 124
8 Punctuation 130
9 Rhyme 131
10 Rhythm and Metre 135
11 Imagery 138
6 Four Nature Poems 143
1 William Collins, 'Ode to Evening' 143
2 William Wordsworth, 'The Solitary Reaper' 149
3 Gerard Manley Hopkins, 'God's Grandeur' 153
4 Edward Thomas, 'Fifty Faggots' 157
5 Form and History 161
Glossary 165
Index 169
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