Product Description

This book offers comprehensive coverage of the creative process and the technical aspects of writing poetry. Filled with practical advice and numerous examples, Writing Poems is appropriate for both the beginning and advanced poet. Its anthology of classic and contemporary poems enlivens its readers' understanding of poetry, illustrates poetic principles, and, above all, inspires writing. With clear explanations, a lively presentation, and in-depth discussions, this book demystifies the process of writing poems and provides the guidance needed to help writers improve their craft. For anyone interested in writing poetry

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #638042 in Books
• Published on: 2003-04-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Back Cover
This book offers comprehensive coverage of the creative process and the technical aspects of writing poetry. Filled with practical advice and numerous examples, Writing Poems is appropriate for both the beginning and advanced poet. Its anthology of classic and contemporary poems enlivens its readers' understanding of poetry, illustrates poetic principles, and, above all, inspires writing. With clear explanations, a lively presentation, and in-depth discussions, this book demystifies the process of writing poems and provides the guidance needed to help writers improve their craft. For anyone interested in writing poetry

Customer Reviews

This book is like an MFA program in poetry in 410 pages.
I have taught this book in its various editions in the Writers' Program at UCLA for many years. It is simply the best textbook I have ever found to demystify poetry and inspire would-be poets. Not only is the text clear, cogent and lively, but the examples of poetry used -- from Sharon Olds' "Sex Without Love" and Norman Dubie's "A Blue Hog", to Yusef Komunyakaa's "Sunday Afternoons" and Richard Wilbur's "Love Calls Us to the Things of the World" (plus classics such as W.C. Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken") -- are uniformly first rate. If you want to learn how to write poetry well and do not live near an urban writing center, you can do no better than to buy this book.

Seek an earlier edition
I have a previous edition of this book which I've really enjoyed, but something seems to have washed out of this current offering. The book is dedicated to Robert Wallace, who died during the compilation of edition #4, and I'm wondering if the book didn't go to press in a daze. This edition seems slicker, perkier, and less succinct than it's siblings. Still useful and nutritious but in that low-salt, high-fiber way that I don't want my poems or books about poems to have. My suggestion is to try an earlier edition.

In my daydreams, every poet has read this book (edition #2 I can vouch for), as well as the books "Western Wind" and "In the Palm of Your Hand" and gorgeous, flexing poems are lying about everywhere. It could happen.

Powerful Creative Writing Text for Poets
WRITING POEMS by Michelle Boisseau and Robert Wallace, 6th ed., offers clear advice, appropriate examples, and stimulating suggestions for creating poems. I recommend this text to advanced poetry students who have had at least one semester of creative writing. R. S. Gwynn's Poetry: A Harper Collins Pocket Anthology would complement this text in a junior-level college poetry writing course.