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A Poet's Guide to Poetry (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and

Publishing) 1st Edition
by Mary Kinzie (Author)
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A Poet's Guide to Poetry brings Mary Kinzie's expertise as poet, critic, and director of the creative writing program at
Northwestern University to bear in a comprehensive reference work for any writer wishing to better understand
poetry. Detailing the formal concepts of poetry and methods of poetic analysis, she shows how the craft of writing can
guide the art of reading poems. Using examples from the major traditions of lyric and meditative poetry in English
from the medieval period to the present, Kinzie considers the sounds and rhythms of poetry along with the ideas and
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Known for her poetry (Ghost Ship) and for cogent critical essays (The Cure of Poetry in an Age of Prose), Kinzie here joins the crowd of poets explaining poetry to
beginners (see "notes" below)Aand distinguishes herself. Mixing her own theories in with more widely shared axioms, Kinzie manages to cover the basics while
shedding new light on line break, syntax and sentence. "Understanding poems as both embedded in progression and indebted to surprise," Kinzie shows how
features like rhyme work sometimes as foreground, sometimes as backgroundAphenomena she dubs "recession of technique." Anticipating the needs of students
who will encounter her Guide as a textbook or reference work, Kinzie has wisely designed the book to be used alongside a comprehensive poetry anthology (and
recommends several). Her quotes and references come mostly and unapologetically from a particular tradition that emphasizes form and control: Thomas Hardy,
Louise Bogan, Edwin Muir and the remarkable Julia Randall turn up a lot, while Pound and Williams scarcely appear. Her Guide concludes with a set of provocative
exercises, a glossary, and a very knowledgeable bibliography. But sophistication of argument, charming idiosyncrasies of taste, and a refusal to condescend are what
really make Kinzie's book stand out.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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28/4/2019 Amazon.com: A Poet's Guide to Poetry (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (9780226437392): Mary Kinzie: Books

From Library Journal

Kinzie, a poet, critic, and director of the creative writing program at Northwestern University, knows her stuff. This is a sound reference book for any writer wishing to
better understand the dynamics of poetry. The book is organized around six elements of style: line, syntax, diction, trope, rhetoric, and rhythm. While reasserting the
claim of poetry as art, Kinzie balances the approaches (and risks) that tradition, technique, and meaning afford in the shaping of verse. Her organization asserts that
the chief mechanism of thought is the sentence, and from its elegance bigger notions are built. Particularly strong is Kinzie's commitment to revealing the dynamics
of how sounds and rhythms qualify thought units, vehicle qualifies tenor, and parallels continuously cooperate. While scholarly, this is also clear, unpedantic, and
substantive. A good complement to the reliable verse handbooks of Louis Turco and Alfred Corn or Joseph Malof's Manual of English Meters (Greenwood, 1978).?
Scott Hightower, NYU/Gallatin, New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product details
Series: Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing
Paperback: 572 pages
Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1st edition (April 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0226437396
ISBN-13: 978-0226437392
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 18 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,281,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
#919 in Literature Encyclopedias
#1180 in Literary History & Criticism Reference
#4749 in Creative Writing & Composition

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18 customer reviews Read reviews that mention

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This is Poetry Science
Write a customer review August 21, 2010
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I have read several books on writing poetry to help me get the creative juices flowing. Most of the books
i've read have primarily focused on allowing the words, whatever they are, to flow from your mind and
onto the paper, and most chapters in those books end with a flamboyant exercise that promices to do just
that. This book Has exercises in it; but this is the first book which I have read that has broken the study of
a poem into a science. This in essense is a textbook and upon reading it you will learn how to properly
analyze a poem, create a straight vision with your poem, and how to maintain style and prose. At least
that is how it has helped me.

9 people found this helpful

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Kay F. Klinkenborg

Kinzie's "Poet's Guide to Poetry" is above par.

March 13, 2014
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Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This extensive guide to writing poetry is well done. Content, progression of skill and experience guides the
novice forward and there is more than enough wisdom and guidance for the published poet as well. This
will remain as a life-long referral source for me as a poet.

3 people found this helpful

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S. Kosler

A Must Have Poet's Reference

May 14, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

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28/4/2019 Amazon.com: A Poet's Guide to Poetry (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (9780226437392): Mary Kinzie: Books

A Poet's Guide has pride of place next to Francis Mayes' The Discovery of Poetry. The in depth definitions,
explanations, examples of poetic technique are enhanced with writing exercises, an excellent bibliography
and thorough index.

One person found this helpful

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David E. Stringer

Five Stars
July 3, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
lovely book as posted - quick delivery - many thanks

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raindancer

Stodgy, smug and practically unreadable

March 21, 2017
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I am 100 pages into this book and wish I had never purchased it. Ms. Kinzies's seems determined to drive
even the most ardent lover of the poetic arts to tear their hair in frustration. Her prose is stylistically dull
and unnecessarily labyrinthine. She exhibits no joy in the art of poetry only the smug eye of the critic. The
book is also badly designed in that she discusses poems in various segments of the book that the reader
keeps having to refer to in her Poetic Sampler. Once bright note, a wonderful poem by Elinor Wilner from
Operations Desert Shield, Desert Storm. I guess that was worth the price of admission but buy the Wilner
book instead.

One person found this helpful

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Michael R. Stolze

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28/4/2019 Amazon.com: A Poet's Guide to Poetry (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (9780226437392): Mary Kinzie: Books

Five Stars
January 24, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Great Book !

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Brad Gadberry

Excellent, But Not the Place to Start Your Poetry Adventure

October 20, 2008
Format: Paperback
In her Introduction, Kinzie says "Those who have a wide acquaintance with with poetry... will, I hope, find
the view of the artistic process... properly challenging." I think her hope will be fulfilled.

The book is excellent, but demanding. I would recommend it for practicing poets, MFA students and
teachers, and true lovers of poetry: if you already "get" poetry, then Kinzie's book will help you get a lot
more. Kinzie's treatment is especially successful at communicating the fluidity and interconnectedness of
specific elements of a poem.

On the other hand, if in the past you have found poetry inaccessible or intimidating, then this book is not
the place to start. Something like Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry would serve
better.

To learn to enjoy and appreciate poetry is to give yourself a wonderful gift for the rest of your life. Go for
it! Get some books! (The first one and the last one are the most important.)

Read
Get more anthology, with lots of different poets and genres:
a first-rate
33 people found this helpful

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An Amazonian

Superb but challenging

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28/4/2019 Amazon.com: A Poet's Guide to Poetry (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing) (9780226437392): Mary Kinzie: Books

June 7, 2018
Format: Paperback
This book is superb. It the most technical, wonky discussion of lyric poetry I know of, and lyric poetry itself
is the super-dense neutron star of literature. This book is SERIOUS. It is difficult. But it is never vague or
blustery. Professor Kinzie uses big words only when she needs to, but she needs to all the time. This is a
real classic that should never go out of print, but it expects its readers to be considering devoting their
lives to poetry: that's why it's a "poet's guide" to poetry.

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