Good books for the crafting of poetry

[billy]

Use this thread to post the title of good reference books.

This can include on-line books such as specific dictionaries etc. (for on-line reference books please leave an url.

[heslopian]

The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry. Stellar book.

[Todd]

The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039333872X/

A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Handbook-Ma...156724006/

I also like Fry's book which Heslopian mentioned. The Triggering Town is probably the one I use the most. Hugo just shares some great insights in his book.

Most of my poetry resources though are simply collections of poets that I like. I spend time analysing how they did something. I look at their technique and try to learn from it. Sometimes just taking apart a few favorite poems is the best way to go about learning (at least from my experience).

[billy]

the only thing i can recommend from use is the oxford english dictionary.
in general i do any reading i have or want to concerning poetry, on the net.
i would advise you to read as much poetry; good and bad, as you can.

Merriam-Webster is a reasonable tool as a dictionary and Theseaurus.

Another online dictionary capable of word translation to other languages.

[Leanne]

I still use The Poet's Manual and Rhyming Dictionary by Francis Stillman. It's an old one but still excellent.

Turco's Book of Forms is useful, but godawfully dull.

[Todd]

Have you seen Turco's defense of himself in the comments on Amazon? Just go to any review three stars or under and he often puts a comment up.

I'm just starting this book now which is supposed to be good. I'll let you all know:

Teaching the Art of Poetry: The Moves by Baron Worser

[Leanne]

I hadn't, but I've just had a look and he's... well, pretty much as I'd expect, full of himself

Poor old Turco the Jerko.

[Aish]

LOL!

I can honestly say I've never picked up a book about writing beyond the stupid MLA guidelines for college. Are they really helpful, or is it more someone touting their own writing style?

[Todd]

Like anything else I guess sometimes it's helpful. Mostly, what I find helpful are not the how to books but the essays that make you think about different aspects fo your writing. I'm in the process of reading Orr's Beautiful and Pointless and Bernstein's Attack of the Difficult Poems. I find the essays more interesting because there's usually something I can pick up that gives me insight into how I might work. I don't look at these things as ways to pick up technique (that usually comes from analysing why the poems I like work).

No silver bullets though...I think a few of these are moderately helpful but maybe not in the way the author envisioned them being used. If it's someone touting their own style I would find that less than helpful.

[Leanne]

You'd really have to pick up a book to find out

Most of the ones we've mentioned are more in the nature of poetry encyclopaedias -- they help to explain the nuts and bolts of poetry and hopefully iron out the most common beginner flaws. There are some excellent essays around by various writers on the nature of poetry also, but the ones I call "excellent" aren't banging on about their own personal style, they're generally talking about ways to understand poetry and poets (and the many ways they're misunderstood, which seems to have been a problem for centuries even though we're all convinced it's something unique to our own generation!)

My personal favourites are Boccaccio's Genealogy of the Gentile Gods, Ch. 7: The Definition of Poetry, Its Origin and Function (you can download the document from www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/genealogygentilegods.doc) -- written in 1360 and still every bit as valid today; A Defence of Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley (http://www.bartleby.com/27/23.html) written in 1821; and The Sacred Wood, 1921 by T S Eliot (who I generally despise as a poet, but agree with in many other areas -- not all, I hasten to add!)

[Aish]

Thank you, Todd and Leanne.
I have a collection of Shelley's poetry, but never thought to see if he had written anything else.

[grannyjill]

I swear by Stephen Fry's The Ode Less Travelled - I have three copies because some of my children didn't liaise last Christmas and all thought I would like a copy.

Another book I stumbled upon is 'How to be well versed in poetry' edited by E.O. Parrott which I love since it contains poetry by amateurs written in response to various literary challenges from newspapers such as The New Statesman, or the Spectator. It is very funny, but educational as well. I particularly like the section which rather than explaining what a 'spondee' is, for example, prints a poem -
Milk-cart

Slow sleet, still street, far beat huge feet.
Clip-clop, start-stop, ear-flop, turd-drop,
Pint-take, gate-shake, sleep-break, house-wake;
Short stay, stamp, neigh,; on way - new day

try to get hold of a copy if you can.

[David Hirt]

The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039333872X/

I read this one in College. I liked it.

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The FIELD guide to poetry is one that I have always enjoyed simply because of the reflections contained in it. It's high on my shelf.