Writing Poems

by Wallace, Robert; Boisseau, Michelle

• ISBN13: 9780321026880
• ISBN10: 0321026888
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Summary

Writing Poems, 5/e, offers well-balanced coverage of the creative process and technical aspects of writing poetry. Filled with practical advice for the beginning poet, the text is a thorough exposition of principles, a reliable handbook, and a convenient anthology that draws on poems. This market-leading text can be used at either the graduate or undergraduate level.

Table of Contents

Preface: To the Teacher	xvii
Starting Out: An Introduction	1	(28)
Diction	3	(5)
Syntax	8	(3)
Pruning and Weeding	11	(3)
Clarity, Obscurity, and Ambiguity	14	(3)
Questions and Suggestions	17	(1)
Poems to Consider
Realism	18	(1)
Czeslaw Milosz
Shalimar Gardens	19	(1)
Carolyn Kizer
Famous	20	(1)
Naomi Shihab Nye
Tahoe in August	20	(1)
Robert Hass
Laws	21	(1)
Stephen Dunn
A Poem of Attrition	22	(1)
Etheridge Knight
No	23	(1)
Mark Doty
The Long Marriage	24	(1)
Maxine Kumin
El Dia de los Muertos	25	(1)
Rafael Campo
Dearest	26	(3)
Jean Valentine
Part I. Form: The Necessary Nothing
Verse	29	(25)
Line	31	(3)
Form	34	(3)
Balance, Imbalance	37	(6)
Questions and Suggestions	43	(2)
Poems to Consider
Loveliest of Trees	45	(1)
A.E. Housman
Outings	45	(1)
Debra Allbery
Scattering Carl	46	(1)
Peter Klappert
Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802	47	(1)
William Wordsworth
The Sacred Cows of Los Angeles	47	(1)
Gerald Costanzo
Poem for a New Cat	48	(1)
Ed Ochester
Hamlen Brook	49	(1)
Richard Wilbur
Quake Theory	49	(1)
Sharon Olds
These Heady Flowers	50	(1)
Elizabeth Kirschner
Storm Window	50	(1)
Conrad Hilberry
Does Joanna Exist?	51	(1)
Bonnie Jacobson
Day's End	51	(1)
Ann Townsend
Two Figures in Dense Violet Light	52	(1)
Wallace Stevens
Chinese Print: No Translation	53	(1)
Peggy Shumaker
The Kiss	53	(1)
Marta Tomes
Measuring the Line (I)	54	(30)
Accentual-Syllabic Meter	54	(5)
Substitution and Variations	59	(6)
Rhythm	65	(3)
A Note on Scanning	68	(4)
Questions and Suggestions	72	(4)
Poems to Consider
For My Contemporaries	76	(1)
J. V. Cunningham
The Snowfall	76	(1)
Donald Justice
Sonnet 29	77	(1)
William Shakespeare
Strugnell's Bargain	77	(1)
Wendy Cope
Balance	77	(1)
Marilyn Nelson
The Guilt	78	(1)
Gerrald Barrax
Afraid	78	(1)
Molly Peacock
Games	79	(1)
James Cummins
Epitaph	79	(1)
Timothy Steele
from An Essay on Criticism	79	(1)
Alexander Pope
The Tropics in New York	80	(1)
Claude Mckay
Learning by Doing	81	(1)
Howard Nemerov
Blue Jay	82	(1)
Paul Lake
Barbed Wire	82	(1)
Henry Taylor
Buffalo	83	(1)
Mark Irwin
Measuring the Line (II)	84	(29)
Nonmetrical Verse: Longer Lines	85	(2)
Nonmetrical Verse: Lines of Mixed Length	87	(4)
Nonmetrical Verse: Shorter Lines	91	(5)
Syllabics and Prose Poems	96	(2)
Questions and Suggestions	98	(3)
Poems to Consider
The Return	101	(1)
Ezra Pound
The Man. His Bowl. His Raspberries.	101	(1)
Claudia Rankine
Peepers	102	(1)
Margaret Holley
The Letter	103	(1)
Amy Lowell
my sweet old etcetera	104	(1)
E. E. Cummings
Holy Water	105	(1)
Christine Dresch
Promised Land	106	(1)
Lynn Powell
We Real Cool	106	(1)
Gwendolyn Brooks
Hazel Tells Laverne	106	(1)
Katharyn Howd Machan
Savior (Mississippi 1957)	107	(1)
Ometeji Adeyemon
The Wrong Street	108	(1)
Cornelius Eady
The Day After	108	(1)
Jim Daniels
Potholes	109	(1)
Linda Hogan
Swimmers	110	(1)
Jay Meek
Snake	110	(3)
D. H. Lawrence
The Sound (and Look) of Sense	113	(28)
Visible Form	114	(5)
Repetition	119	(2)
Onomatopoeia	121	(1)
Alliteration and Assonance	122	(2)
Rhyme	124	(3)
Questions and Suggestions	127	(2)
Poems to Consider
Jump Cabling	129	(1)
Linda Pastan
Song	129	(1)
William Logan
When Icicles Hang by the Wall	130	(1)
William Shakespeare
Song (After Shakespeare)	130	(1)
Maura Stanton
Two Songs of a Fool	131	(1)
William Butler Yeats
Aunt Sue's Stories	131	(1)
Langston Hughes
Reapers	132	(1)
Jean Toomer
At Sixteen	132	(1)
Edward Hirsch
Famous Last Words	133	(1)
Michael Heffernan
The Art of Vanishing	134	(1)
William Trowbridge
For the Women of Ancient Greece	135	(1)
Meggan Watterson
The Fourth of July	136	(1)
Howard Nemerov
To Autumn	137	(4)
John Keats
Part II. Content: A Locan Habitation and a Name
Subject Matter	141	(26)
Subjects and Objects	143	(6)
Presenting	149	(2)
Descriptive Implication	151	(5)
Questions and Suggestions	156	(1)
Poems to Consider
An Introduction	157	(2)
Judson Mitcham
The Dead Monkey	159	(1)
William Olsen
Shopping in Tuckahoe	160	(1)
Jane Flanders
Diapers for My Father	160	(1)
Alice Friman
The Assassination of John Lennon as Depicted by the Madam Tussaud Wax Museum, Niagara Falls, Ontario, 1987	161	(1)
David Wojahn
Names of Horses	162	(1)
Donald Hall
Ronda	163	(1)
Gloria Vando
Traveling Through the Dark	163	(1)
William Stafford
What She Could Do	164	(1)
Elizabeth Holmes
The Curator	164	(3)
Miller Williams
Tale, Teller, and Tone	167	(31)
Narrative	169	(3)
Persona	172	(4)
Point of View	176	(5)
Tone	181	(3)
Questions and Suggestions	184	(1)
Poems to Consider
Witch of Coos	185	(4)
Robert Frost
A Simple Experiment	189	(1)
Muriel Rukeyser
The Rural Carrier Discovers That Love Is Everywhere	190	(1)
T. R. Hummer
Medusa	191	(1)
Louise Bogan
Arkansas Funeral	191	(1)
Brooke Horvath
Mary Poppins II: That's Ms. Poppins to You	192	(1)
Allison Joseph
In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day	193	(2)
X. J. Kennedy
Extra Extra	195	(1)
Sarah Gorham
American Classic	196	(1)
Louis Simpson
In the Mirror	196	(2)
Tricia Stuckey
Metaphor	198	(24)
Figuratively Speaking	202	(3)
A Name for Everything	205	(2)
Pattern and Motif	207	(4)
Conceits	211	(2)
Metaphoric Implication	213	(2)
Questions and Suggestions	215	(1)
Poems to Consider
Icicles	216	(1)
Mark Irwin
Oread	217	(1)
H. D.
After Fighting for Hours	217	(1)
Kate Gleason
Suddenly I Realized I Was Sitting	218	(1)
Elizabeth Kostova
Sparrows	218	(1)
Christopher Buckley
Those Men at Redbones	219	(1)
Thylias Moss
Children of Sacaton	219	(1)
Greg Pape
Waking from Sleep	220	(1)
Robert Bly
The Release	220	(1)
Joseph Bruchac
Fireflies	220	(1)
Ted Kooser
A Red, Red Rose	221	(1)
Robert Burns
She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways	221	(1)
William Wordsworth
Beyond the Rational	222	(31)
Word Magic	223	(3)
The Sense of Nonsense	226	(6)
Metaphors of Experience	232	(3)
Mind Dreams and Body Dreams	235	(2)
Surreality	237	(3)
Questions and Suggestions	240	(2)
Poems to Consider
The Snow Man	242	(1)
Wallace Stevens
Nihilist Time	242	(1)
Rodney Jones
My Dream of the Empty Zoo	243	(1)
Janet Reno
Goat	244	(1)
Andrew Hudgins
La Muerte, Patron Saint of Writers	244	(2)
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
Carry-On	246	(1)
Robert Stewart
Conception	246	(1)
Susan Whitmore
X	247	(1)
Carl Phillips
In the Madness of Love	248	(1)
Gary Soto
In the Mountains	248	(5)
Toi Derricotte
Part III. Process: Making The Poem Happen
Finding the Poem	253	(29)
Imitation, Mentors, and Models	254	(4)
Sources, Currents	258	(2)
Getting into Words	260	(3)
Keeping a Poem Going	263	(3)
Emotion	266	(5)
Questions and Suggestions	271	(2)
Poems to Consider
Dover Beach	273	(1)
Matthew Arnold
The Dover Bitch	274	(1)
Anthony Hecht
Bread and Water	274	(1)
Shirley Kaufman
Ground Swell	275	(1)
Mark Jarman
At Saint Placid's	276	(1)
Lucia Perillo
Still-Hildreth Sanatorium, 1936	277	(2)
David Baker
In Marin Again	279	(1)
Al Young
Late Night Drive	279	(1)
Deborah Kroman
A Nisei Picnic: From an Album	279	(1)
David Mura
A narrow Fellow in the Grass	280	(2)
Emily Dickinson
Devising and Revising	282	(28)
Exploring	282	(2)
Trying Out	284	(2)
Focusing	286	(3)
Shaping	289	(6)
A Set of Drafts	295	(6)
Questions and Suggestions	301	(2)
Poems to Consider
Love Calls Us to the Things of This World	303	(1)
Richard Wilbur
An Onondaga Trades with a Woman Who Sings with a Mayan Tongue	304	(1)
Gail Tremblay
ABC	305	(1)
Robert Pinsky
Interim Report	305	(1)
Elton Glaser
Woman on Twenty-Second Eating Berries	306	(1)
Stanley Plumly
Two Poems of Advice	306	(1)
Wayne Dodd
Tuna	307	(1)
Michael Waters
Jittery Clouds on Memorial Day	308	(1)
Michael Nelson
Landscape	308	(1)
Deborah Tall
Fruit Flies to the Too Ripe Fruit	309	(1)
Michele Glazer
Becoming a Poet	310	(21)
The Growth of a Poet	311	(6)
Going Public	317	(2)
Writing Communities	319	(2)
Getting Organized	321	(2)
Questions and Suggestions	323	(2)
Poems to Consider
Dancing with Poets	325	(1)
Ellen Bryant Voigt
Stepping Out of Poetry	326	(1)
Gerald Stern
Diversion	326	(1)
Rosanna Warren
Like Miles Said	327	(1)
Alvin Aubert
Rain	327	(1)
Sidney Wade
The Bad Snorkler	328	(1)
Ronald Wallace
A Live Dog Being Better Than a Dead Lion	328	(1)
Brigit Pegeen Kelly
Childhood	329	(1)
Arthur Smith
The Next Poem	329	(2)
Dana Gioia
Appendix I: A Brief Glossary of Forms	331	(6)
Appendix II: Notes to the Questions and Suggestions	337	(8)
Appendix III: A Few Suggestions for Further Reading	345	(4)
Acknowledgments	349	(6)
Index of Authors and Titles	355	(8)
Index of Terms	363