Primer for Poets

Primer for Poets Synopsis

An innovative and accessible guide to poetry-writing by an award-winning poet and beloved professor of poetry.A Primer for Poets and Readers of Poetry guides the young poet toward a deeper understanding of how poetry can function in his or her life, while also introducing the art in an exciting new way. Using such poems as Theodore Roethkes "e;My Papas Waltz"e; and Robert Haydens "e;Those Winter Sundays,"e; the Primer encourages young writers to approach their "e;thresholds"e;those places where disorder meets order, where shaping imagination can turn language into urgent and persuasive poems. It provides the poet with more than a dozen focused writing exercises and explains essential topics such as the personal and cultural threshold; the four forces that animate poetic language (naming, singing, saying, imagining); tactics of revision; ecstasy and engagement as motives for poetry; and how to locate and learn from our personal poetic forebears.