The Art and Craft of Poetry

by Michael J. Bugeja

Book Overview

Poets will build their poetry-writing skills with help from past and contemporary masters - everything from generating ideas to examining the finished poem. They'll learn how to: Use journals to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0898796334
• ISBN13: 9780898796339
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Writer's Digest Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

The best text on writing poetry

I've read many books on writing poetry and Bugeja's ART AND CRAFT OF POETRY is the best among them. He offers the clearest explanations of how meter, line length, and rhyme influence tone and meaning in a poem. His section on forms is absolutely the most comprehensive, explaining how to make formal verse into GOOD poetry beyond simply following the technical rules. Suggestions include writing the envoi first in a sestina, shaping meaning in a pantoum, and how to make the repeating lines of a villanelle do multiple tasks. I agree with the reviewer who said she'd want this book if stranded on a island. I can't read more than a page without stopping to write and I know that I've produced several publishable poems. I also know what I can do to revise poems that I knew didn't work, but wasn't sure how to fix them before reading this book. Excellent! I couldn't be more enthusiastic.

Teach Yourself How to Write Poetry

Sonnet, iambic pentameter, the villanelle. . . .and free form. How can a non-poet form reasonable and enjoyable poetry? This book is the answer especially if you appreciate poetry and want to learn some forms to test your ideas. This is the book. It's broken down into 3 sections. The first is a non-intimidating idea section which allows the reader to dip into his/her unconscious and come up with tons of ideas for poems and prose. You don't start off with a poem until the next two chapters where you take ideas from the idea file and utilize them. I mean, who knew how important a very effective title was to poetry, poets perhaps? The last chapter discusses the particular forms and how you can revise, yes you can revise, your poems to work into a form. This book's format was incredibly enjoyable. After reading it once, I had several poems that I was happy with. When I read it again, yes, this is definately a book to read more than once, I will get more ambitious and focus on forms. This first time I just had fun. I can see why it is recommended by teachers for students. Or, like me, you can teach yourself.

A Wonderful Teaching Tool

Michael Bugeja's book is geared toward writers of any caliber, especially those who do not appreciate scholarly approaches to poetry composition. This text is hand's on and continues to be a best-seller after almost a decade because the instruction is based on effective teaching, rhymed and free verse approaches, and several levels of exercises at the end of each chapter. The work also comes with an extensive anthology exposing the reader to poetry from Shakespeare to the current era.

Start Your Poetry Here

If I were sent to an island to live alone and could bring only three things with me, they would be a gross of pens, a case of paper and The Art and Craft of Poetry. Michael immediately immerses the reader into the world of poetry. He starts at the beginning, with the issue most frustrating to beginning poets - What do I write about? By the end of Chapter 1 the reader is armed with enough ideas and resources to last several lifetimes. He then takes you on a brief but meaningful tour of poetry genres, complete with exercises. By the time you have completed these exercises you realize he has not only presented genres, but forms as well. He then discusses the forms of poetry in greater depth, both historic and contemporary. Even if you never plan to write a poem, this book will broaden your understanding and appreciation of this beloved and increasingly popular form of literature.

Wonderful!!

There's no getting around it. Michael Bugeja knows his stuff. This book is an incredibly thorough survey of the different types of poetry being published today, with many examples of each kind as well as general advice about the creation of such poems. I enjoyed the various exercises at the end of each chapter that allow you to continue using the book as you progress as a poet. The book is well written, straightforward and has made me a better poet.