How to Read a Poem

Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader. * Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content. * Takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis. * Discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more. * Includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.

ISBN 1405151412   Pages 192 ISBN13 9781405151412 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd   Weight (grammes) 292 Imprint Blackwell Publishing Ltd   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Series title How to Study Literature Publication date 20 Sep 2006   Height (mm) 229 Library of Congress 2006008194   Width (mm) 156 DEWEY 808.1   Spine width (mm) 11 DEWEY edition DC22   Academic level Professional / Scholarly

1		The functions of criticism		1
		The end of criticism?		1
		Politics and rhetoric		8
		The death of experience		17
		Imagination		22
2		What is poetry?		25
		Poetry and prose		25
		Poetry and morality		28
		Poetry and fiction		31
		Poetry and pragmatism		38
		Poetic language		41
3		Formalists		48
		Literariness		48
		Estrangement		49
		The semiotics of Yury Lotman		52
		The incarnational fallacy		59
4		In pursuit of form		65
		The meaning of form		65
		Form versus content		70
		Form as transcending content		79
		Poetry and performance		88
		Two American examples		96
5		How to read a poem		102
		Is criticism just subjective?		102
		Meaning and subjectivity		108
		Tone, mood and pitch		114
		Intensity and pace		118
		Texture		120
		Syntax, grammar and punctuation		121
		Ambiguity		124
		Punctuation		130
		Rhyme		131
		More...

"The wit he brings to the task of helping readers read poems will, for some readers (myself included), be a source of pleasure." (Notes and Queries, June 2010) “From the first page, the reader of How to Read a Poem realises that this, at last, is a book which begins to answer Adrian Mitchell's charge: 'Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people'. Eagleton introduces himself as 'a politically minded literary theorist'. The remarkable achievement of this book is to prove that such a theorist is the only person who can really show what poetry is for. By a brilliant and scrupulous series of readings - of Yeats and Frost and Auden and Dickinson - framed in a lively account of the function of criticism as perhaps only he could expound it, Eagleton shows how literary theory, seriously understood, is the ground of poetic understanding. This will be the indispensable apology for poetry in our time." Bernard O'Donoghue, Wadham College, Oxford "With energy and wit, Eagleton proves once and for all that close readers and theoretical readers should be partners rather than enemies." John Redmond, Liverpool University "...lucid and engaging...Eagleton's book 'designed as an introduction to poetry for students and general readers', is a breath of fresh air." Marjorie Perloff, TLS, Books of the Year “Eagleton raises many interesting points" Choice “A how-to book with an agenda. Smart, witty and provocative ... How to Read a Poem challenges us not only to look again at poetic form, but also to bring aesthetics back into our discussions fo what makes a poem worth studying. We may not agree with Eagleton, but we would do well to accept his challenge." College Literature "Illuminating." The Times

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