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A Poetry Handbook |  | Author: Mary Oliver
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $3.50
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Seller: cbs2ames
Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 15485
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 130
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.4
ISBN: 0156724006
Dewey Decimal Number: 808.1
EAN: 9780156724005
ASIN: 0156724006
Publication Date: August 15, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
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.
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.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
 an inspiring guide to writing poetry December 31, 1997
alex2@plainfield.bypass.com (Montpelier, Vermont)
26 out of 28 found this review helpful
Mary Oliver's poetry itself can do some teaching on its own, but we can be grateful she's chosen to articulate the writing process so richly in this book. The book will almost certainly will wring some writing out of you; it will also inspire you to examine your work habits and technique. Oliver's intelligence shines through, and will make you a better reader of poetry. Small note on the previous review: Mary Oliver does, indeed, teach, at Bennington College currently. If you can't enroll there, this book is your next best choice.
The "Elements of Style" for poetry September 2, 1999
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
The book is a concise, brilliant guide for anyone interested in writing poetry or in understanding it better.
An Indispensable Guide March 9, 2006
Mark Rockwell (OH, United States)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Say what you will about her poetry, Mary Oliver clearly understands the technical aspects of the craft and in this small tome she conveys them brilliantly. With a clear voice and plenty of examples drawn from the masters of poetry, Oliver is able to bring great insights to the beginner or amateur poetry writer.
It may be going just a bit far to say that Oliver's book is to poetry what Strunk & White's is to prose, but for the non-expert it feels awful close.
A Lasting Contribution To Poetry November 27, 2002
R. Peake (Ojai, CA United States)
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
With _A Poetry Handbook_, Mary Oliver does for poetry what Strunk and White did for prose. This book is elementary, not in the sense of being remedial, but as a clear introduction to the fundimental principles of poetic criticism and craft. This is a book you will reference repeatedly, whose pages you will yellow with delight throughout your career -- however casual or professional -- in poetry.
Poetry Handbooks written by poets January 11, 2009
J. Finnerty (Boston, MA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Mary Oliver is a well-known, distinguished poet. Her book "A Poetry Handbook" was recommended to me by a professor from my current MFA Poetry program and it has been both a surprise, and a confirmation that poets themselves (not academics and critics) have the deepest insight into how to write a good poem. Oliver suggests that poetry is like a current ready to flow through you. It is not merely "an acquisition," a skill, or something outside yourself - but more a combination of punctuality in "showing up" to do the work, and an opening of the heart (or,as Oliver calls it: "that shy factory of the emotion.")
Each chapter addresses component parts of poetry writing: line, sound, diction, imagery, voice and more. Oliver's choice of poets: Whitman, Bishop, James Wright, Frost, Pound, are all strong choices, their poems providing supportive examples of her discussion of craft.
Most importantly, however, she provides the best piece of advise in her opening chapters: read, read, read poems. To be a good poet, you must read a range of poetry, spanning history and geography and style. And after that, Oliver provides the surprise (a heady permission I learned in my very early years of writing which has held fast through many moments of flagging confidence and motivation) "Imitate." We read, we imitate, and from this process we find our own voice and style. As Oliver tells us: "It demands finally, a thrust of our own imagination - a force, a new idea - to make sure that we don't merely copy, but inherit, and proceed from what we have learned."
Though beautifully simple and straightforward, I would not categorize this book as being for any particular level of writer: beginner, or accomplished. The beginner will learn well and happily, and the more accomplished writer will find again and again, much needed resonance for the continuing passion of writing poetry.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 34
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