Poetic Form: An Introduction

Poetic Form offers a clear, compact, and entertaining introduction to the history, structure, and practice of the language’s most popular verse forms.   Written with humor and wit, this guide aims to convey the pleasures of poetry — a sestina’s delightful gamesmanship, an epigram’s barbed wit, a haiku's deceptive simplicity — and the fun of exploring the poetic forms.  Each chapter defines a particular verse form, briefly describes its history, and offers examples.  Writing exercises challenge students to utilize the forms in creative expression.  Covering a wider range of forms in greater detail and with more poetic examples than similar guides on the market, it provides enough material to thoroughly introduce the language’s major forms while allowing flexibility in the classroom.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction to Theories of Form   2. Meter Background and Structure of Accentual Meter More Works in Accentual Meter             Easter, 1916 William Butler Yeats Background and Structure of Accentual Syllabic Meter More Works in Accentual Syllabic Meter             From Paradise Lost, Book 1, "Of Man's First Disobedience, and the Fruit…” John Milton             Lines, Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey, On Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798 William Wordsworth             Home Burial Robert Frost Background and Structure of Syllabic Meter More Works in Syllabic Meter             The Fish Marianne Moore 3. Musical Forms   Background and Structure of the Ballad and the Blues             Our Goodman Traditional             The Unquiet Grave Traditional More Works in the Ballad             Get Up and Bar the Door Traditional             "Ah, Are You Digging On My Grave?" Thomas Hardy             During Wind and Rai, Thomas Hardy             Sir John Barleycorn Traditional             The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Book IV Samuel Taylor Coleridge             La Belle Dame Sans Merc, John Keats             The Wife of Usher's Well Anonymous             Frankie and Johnny American Traditional More Works in the Blues             Homesick Blues,             The Weary Blues, Langston Hughes             Refugee Blues, W. H. Auden An Exercise in the Musical Forms 4. Sonnets and the Rondeau Background and Structure of the Sonnet             "My God, where is that ancient heat towards Thee" George Herbert             Petrarch's Rime 140 translations by Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey             When my love swears that she is made of truth" William Shakespeare             "Help me to seek, for I lost it there ThomasWyatt             Surprised by Joy William Wordsworth             "To the White Fiends" Claude McKay More Works in the Sonnet             "Two loves I have of comfort and despair” WilliamShakespeare             “When I consider how my light is spent” John Milton             "Prayer the Churches banquet, Angels age" George Herbert             from Holy Sonnets, "Batter my heart, three personed God" John Donne             from Elegiac Sonnets, Sonnet I, "The partial Muse, has from my earliest hours", Charlotte Smith             from Astrophil and Stella, "Loving in Truth" Sir Phillip Sydney             from Astrophil and Stella, "Who will in fairest book of nature know" Sir Philip Sydney             from Astrophil and Stella, "With how sad steps" Sir Philip Sydney             (from Astrophil and Stella?), "Leave Me, O Love” Sir Phillip Sidney             "When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes" WilliamShakespeare             "My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun” WilliamShakespeare             "On the Late Massacre" Kate Chopin             "When I Consider" Kate Chopin             "It's Sunday Evening.  Pomp holds the receipts…" Marilyn Nelson Waniek             Ode to the West Wind Percy Bysse Shelley More Works in the Rondeau             "In Flanders Fields" John McCrate             We Wear the Mask, Paul Laurence Dunbar An Exercise in the Sonnet 5. Couplets Background and Structure of the Couplet             To the Memory of Mr. Oldham John Dryden More Works in Couplet Verse             Epistles to Dr. Arbuthnot Alexander Pope             Mac Flecknoe John Dryden             Adam's Curse W. B. Yeats             My Last Duchess Robert Browning             Strange Meeting Wilfred Owen             Downtown Diner Author? An Exercise in Couplet Verse 6. Sestina   Background and Structure of the Sestina             Altaforte: A Sestina Ezra Pound             Love Letters, Diane Thiel More Works in the Sestina             Of the Lady Petra degli Scrovigni Dante Alighieri, translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti             "Ye goatherd gods…" Sir Philip Sidney             Miracle for Breakfast Elizabeth Bishop An Exercise in the Sestina 7. Villanelle Background and Structure of the Villanelle             The House on the Hill Edward Arlington Robinson More Works in the Villanelle             Villanelle for D. G. B. Marilyn Hacker             Theocritus Oscar Wilde             One Art Elizabeth Bishop             from Five Villanelles Weldon Kees             Daughters, 1900 Marilyn Nelson Waniek             Macbeth's Daughter William Logan             Macbeth's Daughter Drowned William Logan An Exercise in the Villanelle 8. Other French Forms   Background and Structure of the Ballade and the Triolet             The Ballade of the Incompetent Ballade-Monger J. K. Stephen             "When first we met we did not guess" Robert Bridges More Works in the Ballade             A Ballade of Dreamland Algernon Charles Swinburne             Envoi Algernon Charles Swinburne             Ballade of the Yale Younger Poets of Yesteryear R. S. Gwynn             A Ballad of Suicide G. K. Chesterton             The Ballad of Dead Ladies François Villon, translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti             Ballade of a Great Weariness Dorothy Parker An Exercise in the French Forms 9. Japanese Forms Background and Structure of the Japanese Forms             Etheridge Knight More Works in Haiku             Hashin             Onitsura "Letter to Munnsville, NY from the Rue de Turenne" 10. Other Asian Forms             Of Fire Agha Shahid Ali More Works in the Rubáiyat and the Ghazal             Autumn Rachel Wetzsteon             Prayer Grace Shulman             selected lines from Rubáiyat of Omar Khayyám An Exercise in the Ghazal 11. Short Comic Forms   Background and Structure of the Epigram             Two Cures for Love Wendy Cope             Their Sex Life A. R. Ammons             The Common Wisdom Howard Nemerov Mores Works in the Epigram             "Sir, I admit your gen'ral rule" Alexander Pope             "Here lies the body of Richard Hind" Anonymous             On Sir John Guise Anonymous             Of Death Anonymous             To Fool or Knave Ben Jonson             "Lip was a man who used his head" Anonymous             Epitaph for Somone or Other J. V. Cunningham             Unfortunate Coincidence Anonymous             De Profundis Anonymous             Comment Dorothy Parker             Repentance Anonymous             Desire Anonymous             Fatherhood Dick Davis             On a Certain Alderman John Cunningham             On a Bad Singer Samuel Taylor Coleridge             “What is an Epigram?” Samuel Taylor Coleridge             “Truth I pursued” Samuel Taylor Coleridge             First Fig Edna St. Vincent Millay             A Critic Walter Savage Landor Background and Structure of the Limerick             "There was an Old Man of Messina…" Edward Lear More Works in the Limerick             On Himself Dante Gabriel Rosetti             On Arthur Hugh Clough Algernon Charles Swinburne             "There was a Young Lady whose chin…" Edward Lear             "There was an Old Man of the Isles…" Edward Lear             "There was an old Person whose habits…" Edward Lear             "There was an Old Man of Calcutta…" Edward Lear Background and Structure of the Clerihew             "Sir (then Mr.) Walter Beasant" E. Clerihew Bentley             "I was once slapped by a young lady named Miss Goringe" Ogden Nash An Exercise in the Short Comic Forms 12. Classical Imitations   Background and Structure of Classical Imitations             "If mine eyes can speak to do hearty errand…" Sir Philip Sidney More Works of Classical Imitation             Sapphics Against Anger Timothy Steele             The Day of Judgment Isaac Watts             Hatred and Vengeance, My Eternal Portion William Cowper An Exercise in Classical Imitation  13. Forms of Free Verse               VII. But to Honor Truth Which is Smooth Divine and Lives Among the Gods…" Anne Carson             Grove of Academia, H. D.   More Works in Free Verse             The Young Housewife William Carlos Williams             The Waste Land Author             from Leaves of Grass Walt Whitman             When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Author             Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Wallace Stevens 14. Prose Poetry More Works in Prose Poetry             from Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein             from My Life Lyn Hejinian             A Story About the Body Robert Hass 15. New Forms and Old "From the Basque" Charles Bernstein Manifesto Edwin Morgan "AID/I/SAPPEARANCE” Joan Retallack The Beautician Thom Gunn Notes   Suggestions for Further Reading