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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.1
EAN num: 9780156724005
ISBN number: 0156724006
Label: Harvest Books
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 144
Printing Date: August 15, 1994
Publishing house: Harvest Books
Sale Popularity Level: 6218
Studio: Harvest Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built--meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a short space.
Amazon.com Review:
This slender guide by Mary Oliver deserves a place on the shelves of any budding poet. In clear, accessible prose, Oliver (winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry) arms the reader with an understanding of the technical aspects of poetry writing. Her lessons on sound, line (length, meter, breaks), poetic forms (and lack thereof), tone, imagery, and revision are illustrated by a handful of wonderful poems (too bad Oliver was so modest as to not include her own). What could have been a dry account is infused throughout with Oliver's passion for her subject, which she describes as 'a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind.' One comes away from this volume feeling both empowered and daunted. Writing poetry is good, hard work.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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If you enjoy reading or writing poetry or if you don't understand poetry and want to gain a better understanding, read this book. Reading the book is much like reading poetry, for it is much more than a book about poetry; it comes from the heart of a poet and describes the art she loves so well. It is not like any other book 'about' poetry that I have read.
Rated by buyers -
I have to say, I am VERY picky when it comes to books. Whatever the genre, be it non-fiction, fiction, or poetry, I demand much. I strongly feel that those who reach the top of the heap amidst all the would-be writers out there should be shining examples.
Having said that, this book certainly passes muster. It exposes one to a great variety of poetic styles and techniques, and was instrumental in opening my mind and heart to several poetic forms I would never have dreamed I would like.
Ms. Oliver's love of poetry and language, her own ability to weave words, her wide-eyed filter into a cross-section of different poetic forms and their underlying mechanisms, and the excellent examples used to amplify those observations, make this one book that should grace every poetry-lover's shelf.
Rated by buyers -
I've been reading a lot of books on poetry, meter and writing and Mary Oliver is the best. She is Clear, Concise, and Accessible by all levels of readers.
Some books on writing or poetry need to be decoded or explained by a professor or expert. For example John Hollander wrote a wonderful book titled "Rhyme's Reason" but parts of it were way over my head. If it was the very first poetry book I read I wouldn't have kept reading them. Not to discount JH,(Rhyme's Reason is a superb book.) but rather Mary Oliver's book is easy to digest.
I highly recommend this to not just poets but all writers. The information on meter and the use of language and phonics is enlightening.
Rated by buyers 
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Mary Oliver makes variations of poetry styles clear and useful to a serious writer of poetry or one wanting to change from prose to poetry. Easy for a beginner, good reference for anyone.
Rated by buyers -
Mary Oliver's book about writing poetry is very like her poetry, unsurprisingly. It is brief, evocative, latent with implications and wit. It seemed to be addressed to people who attend poetry workshops and some points seemed to have derived from that type of experience, and the type of poem that: "it really doesn't matter whether you read it or not." She makes the point that good poetry requires solitude for its gestation, and I don't think it's too great besmirchment of educational ideals to say that great poets are born not made, after all people don't seem able to "learn" spiritual intuition. Some people do however begin to ring inside when the subject matter of spiritual intuition comes up, as in her poetry, and this book about technique manages to stir you within. It's also entertaining.
But I think if she hadn't been addressing poetry workshop attendees, she might have taken up the very dangerous topic of subject matter. She, like the great Haiku artists, always writes about aspects of the reality we can sense: see, hear, touch, remember seeing. etc. and these experiences lead to deeper reflections of the deeper Reality. Her poems take us to the place where the higher world and (our) lower world overlap, which, though it's everywhere, isn't that easy to find.
I think the real necessity in learning to be a poet or artist of any kind is in the learning to live, in becoming permeable to the great invisibility. This is much more difficult than is generally thought and, possibly, a subject of great interest, since it entails a study of everything you do and are. Anyway, she avoided this aspect of poetry for the moment and wrote this perfectly fine, insightful examination modern poetic virtues and sensibilities.
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