Full Description
Poetry has been around for nearly five millennia, yet never has it been more puzzling. Technology, social media, and the blinding pace of contemporary life leave many students and readers in the dark. Just in time, this book comes to the rescue not just with a response to the problem of understanding and enjoying poetry, but it offers a solution. A widely published writer and poet, the author takes the mystery and madness out of verse with specific strategies designed to tame the poetic wilderness—not by dumbing down the poems but by raising the ability of readers to absorb this gem of literary form. Readers of all abilities and sensibilities will profit from the book's ability to drill down to the bedrock of meaning. Valenti mines his decades of experience writing, publishing, and teaching poetry to provide innovative hints, tips, guidelines, and directives that will benefit anyone wishing to cultivate their enjoyment of literature's highest form of expression.
Contents
F**k! Or the Amazing Power of Words - Pieces and Pictures of the Puzzle - Keys to the Kingdom - The Riddle of the Work - Explosions and Explorations in Word Power - The Sound of Music - Poetry: A Utility for Thought and the Rhythm of Life - Hip Hop, Poetry, and Other Strange Bedfellows - Formal, Blank, and Free Verse - It Figures: Metaphor, Simile, and Personification - Symbolism and Other Experiments in Language - Values: Taking It to the Next Level - It Is What It Is, But It Ain't What It Seems - "What on Earth Is the Poet Saying?" - Lines of Analysis and What to Do If You Come Up Empty - Going All In, Subtitle as Placeholder, and Other Distinctions - Poems of Story, Description, Character, and Heart - Core Principles, Resources, and Glossary - Bibliography - Afterword - Index.
