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For its playful sincerity and idiosyncratic humor, Poetry: A Survivor's Guide has earned praise from students, teachers and readers around the globe, as it offers an original take on a subject both loved and feared. In a time of great change, its unconventional advice and application is crucial to encourage meaningful discussion and personal growth. This updated and expanded edition probes a range of strategies for inspiring students and aspiring poets on the ways poetry relates to their own lives. These include individual meditation, digital learning, and the uses and utility of poetry as a tool of social change.
List of contents
Warning
Introduction
Part I. Reading
Essentials
Poetic Aims
Accessibility
Biography
Close Reading
Emotion
Pattern and Variation
Ineffability
Sound Work
Rhythm
Enjambment
The Line
The Lyric
Metaphor
Ambiguity
Dickinson
Classics
Myths
Appropriation
Great Books
Whitman
Imagery
Roses
Prose Poetry
Narrative
Criticism and Theory
Pessoa
Political Poetry
Aesthetics
Reader Response
Classroom Reading
Poetry Readings
Reader’s Block
Spirituality
Flight
Part 2. Writing
First Principles
Form
Sonnet
Identity
Self-Expression
Memory
Sublimation
Imitation
Avant-Garde
Translation
Technique
The Creative Writing Classroom
The Workshop
Peer Review
Revision
Poet-Teachers
Professionalization
Master of Fine Arts
Literary Magazines
Publication
Series, Sequence
Chapbook, Manuscript
Collections
Book Reviews
Writing Conferences
Culture Jamming
Poetic Practices
Moods
Depression
Meditation
Procrastination
End Notes
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Index
About the author
Mark Yakich is Gregory F. Curtin, S.J. Distinguished Professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans, USA, where he is Director of the Center for Editing & Publishing. He is the author of many poetry collections, including
Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross (2004),
The Importance of Peeling Potatoes in Ukraine (2008), and
Spiritual Exercises (2019), all from Penguin Books. His unconventional guide to reading and writing poems,
Poetry: A Survivor's Guide (2nd Ed., Bloomsbury, 2022), is taught worldwide.
Summary
Poetry: A Survivor’s Guide has earned high praise from students, teachers, and readers from around the globe for its playful sincerity and idiosyncratic humor and for its approach to a subject both loved and feared. Updated and expanded, including six new sections, the second edition probes a range of strategies for inspiring students and aspiring poets on the ways poetry relates to their own lives. These include the delights and pitfalls of individual meditation, the complications of identity and appropriation, and the uses and utility of poetry as a tool of social change.
The second edition also includes a curated companion website for teachers, students, and aspiring poets that features poetry examples, writing prompts and exercises, and resources for publishing poetry. Online resources to accompany this book are available at:
https://bloomsbury.pub/poetry-a-survivors-guide-2e.
