The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry by Rhian Williams

The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry by Rhian Williams

With examples from an extensive range of poets from Chaucer to today, The Poetry Toolkit offers simple and clear explanations of key terms, genres and concepts that enable readers to develop a richer, more sophisticated approach to reading, thinking and writing about poems. Combining an easy-to-use reference format defining and illustrating key concepts, forms and topics, with in-depth practice readings and further exercises, the book helps students master the study of poetry for themselves.

Now in its second edition, The Poetry Toolkit includes a wider range of examples from contemporary poetry and more American poetry. In addition, an extended close reading section now offers practice comparative readings of the kind students are most likely to be asked to undertake, as well as readings informed by contemporary environmental and urban approaches.

The book is also supported by extensive online resources, including podcasts, weblinks, guides to further reading and advanced study guides to reading poetry theoretically.

This is an inspirational guide to studying poetry, exciting for beginners and experienced readers alikeA tour de force of succinctness, clarity, and adroit cross referencing, it is not only a tour through every conceivable feature a reader could need - from the sonnet form to synloepha, from sesta rima to syllepsis - but an imaginative and arresting exposition of the way poets have used them, whether Dante or David Jones, Sappho or E E Cummings, Milton or Deryn Rees-Jones. Rhian Williams aims to set readers free by building confidence with genre and form, metre and rhyme, demystifying technicalities and terminology, providing follow up reading, and appealing to curiosity and the sense of experiment. She urges readers to read poems aloud, to listen to sounds, mark rhythms, and imagine themselves inside the poem before moving out to its history and context. After reading this book newcomers to poetry will learn to love reading and writing about it. - Isobel Armstrong FBA and Emeritus Professor of English at Birkbeck, University of London
Whether you're a new-comer to poetry or a longtime reader, Rhian Williams' The Poetry Toolkit offers welcomed guidance. The book ranges from the introductory (what does stress mean?) to the sophisticated and complex. Throughout, the author provides clear frameworks for interpreting how poetry's formal structures participate in the work of meaning-making. This book will relieve students' anxiety and deepen their understanding. - Dr Jason R. Rudy. Assistant Professor of English University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Review in Times Higher Education Supplement, February 2009.
'Whether you're a new-comer to poetry or a longtime reader, Rhian Williams' The Poetry Toolkit offers welcomed guidance. The book ranges from the introductory (what does stress mean?) to the sophisticated and complex. Throughout, the author provides clear frameworks for interpreting how poetry's formal structures participate in the work of meaning-making. This book will relieve students' anxiety and deepen their understanding' Writing Magazine
...I would certainly recommend this handbook for students who intend to pursue the study of poetry through their degree. The book is comprehensive in coverage and all the terms are fully explained and illustrated...I learned a great deal from the wealth of information contained here and will certainly make extensive use of the book as a teaching resource. Students will appreciate the clarity and concision of exposition and will note that the index and 'contents' page make it easy to find the information looked for...[Williams] illustrates close poetic analysis and offers several close reading exercises; and at the end of each section she gives suggestions for further reading and prompts for deeper thinking. English Vol. 58, 2009
'The Poetry Toolkit will be a valued for many readers, both academic and 'general'. Every reader will learn something from it - it is rare to have riches such as this in a single textbook.' WordPlay
'With a refreshing clarity and concision the volume traverses a field which has a reputation for being jargon-laden and intimidating. The simplicity of the book's style, however, sacrifices none of the complexities of its topic.' -- English Studies
How does one get started in the world of poetry, either as the consumer or the producer? The Poetry Toolkit: the Essential Guide to Studying Poetry hopes to educate and inspire readers to better understand the world of poetry. Chapters cover the eccentricities of truly understanding poetry from a reader's perspective. Packed with advice and tips for poetry appreciation, The Poetry Toolkit is an intriguing introductory dive in the world of the poet. The Poetry Toolkit is just what some people need to break that daunting poetry wall. -- Midwest Book Review * Midwest Book Review, The *
The Poetry Toolkit conveys Williams's genuine enthusiasm for the genre's expressive and descriptive possibilities - an excitement that the volume's accessible style and layout make it easy for students to share. I have tried many introduction to poetry volumes during the ten-plus years I've been teaching such classes; in The Poetry Toolkit, I've finally found one that I happily foresee using for many years to come. -- Evan Gottlieb, Associate Professor of English, Associate Professor of English, Oregon State University, USA

Rhian Williams is Lecturer in Nineteenth-century Literature at the University of Glasgow, UK.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781441182784
ISBN 10	1441182780
Title	The Poetry Toolkit: The Essential Guide to Studying Poetry
Author	Rhian Williams
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year published	2013-01-17
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.