An Exaltation of Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their ArtAnnie Finch, Kathrine Varnes At once handbook, reader, and guide to the literary tastes and wisdom of poets, An Exaltation of Forms is an indispensable resource certain to find a dedicated audience among poetry lovers. The editors invited over fifty contemporary poets to select a poetic meter, stanza, or form, describe it, recount its history, and provide favorite examples. The essays represent a remarkably diverse range of literary styles and approaches, and show how the forms of contemporary English-language poetry derive from a wealth of different traditions. The forms range from hendecasyllabics to prose poetry, haiku to procedural poetry, sonnets to blues, rap to fractal verse. The range of poets included is equally impressive--from Amiri Baraka to John Frederick Nims, from Maxine Kumin to Marilyn Hacker, from Agha Shahid Ali to Pat Mora, from W. D. Snodgrass to Charles Bernstein. Achieving this level of eclecticism is a remarkable feat, especially given the strong opinions held by members of the various camps (e.g., the New Formalists, LANGUAGE poets, feminist and multicultural poets) that exist within today's poetry community. Poets who might never occupy the same room here occupy the same pages, perhaps for the first time. The net effect is a book that will surprise, inform, and delight a wide range of readers, whether as reference book, pleasure reading, or classroom text. Poet, translator, and critic Annie Finch is director of the Stonecoast low-residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. She is author of The Ghost of Meter: Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse, Eve, and Calendars. She is the winner of the eleventh annual Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award for scholars who have made a lasting contribution to the art and science of versification. Kathrine Varnes teaches English at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is the author of the book of poems, The Paragon. Her poems and essays have appeared in many books and journals. |
From inside the book
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Page 3
... writing class , by reading straight through each essay in order , or by assigning sections to students based on interest . It also provides a resource for a workshop leader who discovers a student pursuing a form - such as the rondeau ...
... writing class , by reading straight through each essay in order , or by assigning sections to students based on interest . It also provides a resource for a workshop leader who discovers a student pursuing a form - such as the rondeau ...
Page 4
... writing matches the right form to the right occa- sion . Remembering his composition of a poem set in Los Angeles , Tim- othy Steele expresses his desire to convey the place's multiplicity while still maintaining the " preservative ...
... writing matches the right form to the right occa- sion . Remembering his composition of a poem set in Los Angeles , Tim- othy Steele expresses his desire to convey the place's multiplicity while still maintaining the " preservative ...
Page 5
... writer's unconscious , valuing the semantic surprises that avant - garde methods can uncover in language . Osman ... writers of the form's ten- dency toward " vapid description - nature and love often being the culprits , " and Thomas M ...
... writer's unconscious , valuing the semantic surprises that avant - garde methods can uncover in language . Osman ... writers of the form's ten- dency toward " vapid description - nature and love often being the culprits , " and Thomas M ...
Page 8
... Writing " gardens " instead of " woods " introduces an extra unaccented syllable into an otherwise iambic line . We could understand this extra syllable as creating an anapest ( = ens these are ) , since most readers , as a way of ...
... Writing " gardens " instead of " woods " introduces an extra unaccented syllable into an otherwise iambic line . We could understand this extra syllable as creating an anapest ( = ens these are ) , since most readers , as a way of ...
Page 18
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Contents
VI | 15 |
VII | 24 |
VIII | 32 |
IX | 39 |
X | 46 |
XI | 52 |
XII | 59 |
XIII | 66 |
XLI | 238 |
XLII | 242 |
XLIV | 247 |
XLVI | 254 |
XLVII | 262 |
L | 272 |
LI | 279 |
LII | 290 |
XIV | 73 |
XV | 81 |
XVI | 86 |
XVII | 95 |
XIX | 107 |
XX | 116 |
XXII | 122 |
XXIV | 132 |
XXV | 141 |
XXVI | 148 |
XXVII | 156 |
XXVIII | 165 |
XXIX | 167 |
XXX | 180 |
XXXI | 188 |
XXXII | 198 |
XXXIV | 206 |
XXXVI | 210 |
XXXVII | 217 |
XXXVIII | 223 |
XL | 228 |
LIII | 297 |
LIV | 308 |
LV | 314 |
LVI | 323 |
LVII | 325 |
LVIII | 334 |
LIX | 341 |
LX | 352 |
LXI | 359 |
LXII | 366 |
LXIII | 379 |
LXIV | 385 |
LXV | 391 |
LXVI | 394 |
LXVIII | 396 |
LXIX | 400 |
LXX | 413 |
LXXI | 417 |
LXXII | 435 |
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Common terms and phrases
accent accentual verse accentual-syllabic aesthetic alcaic anapestic anthology ballade Bashō beats blank verse blues called century classical contemporary Copyright counted verse dactylic décima dream English enjambment epigram example excerpt eyes feel feet formal fractal free verse genre ghazal haiku hendecasyllabic heroic couplet hip-hop iambic pentameter J. V. Cunningham John language light literary look Lord lyric Marilyn Hacker meter metrical moon morning narrative never night opening Oulipo pantoum pantun Paradelle pattern permission poem's poems quoted poetic form poetry prose poem prosody published quatrain reader refrain renku Reprinted rhyme scheme rhythm Robert rondeau sapphic sestina sing song sonnet sound stanza stress syllables terza rima tetrameter thee things Thomas thou thought tion traditional translated triolet trochaic trochees University Press villanelle W. H. Auden William words writing written York
References to this book
Discovering Patterns in Mathematics and Poetry Marcia Birken,Anne Christine Coon Limited preview - 2008 |