The gold standard of poetry writing books, Writing Poems, 8/e is a comprehensive, easy-to-use guide that will help aspiring poets to create meaningful works.

Contents Before Designing the Course: A Preface to the Teacher xix 1 Starting Out: An Introduction 1 Word Magic 4 Diction 4 Syntax 8 Pruning and Weeding 10 Clarity, Obscurity, and Ambiguity 12 Questions and Suggestions 14 Poems to Consider Barter RAVI SHANKAR Mule Hour TERRANCE HAYES Famous NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Abstraction GEOFFREY BROCK Reading Sonnevi on a Tuesday Night WAYNE MILLER PART I: FORM 2 Verse 25 Line 27 Form 29 Balance 33 Questions and Suggestions 37 Poems to Consider the rites for Cousin Vit GWENDOLYN BROOKS Po]tolka (Prague) CHRISTIAN WIMAN Form HEATHER MCHUGH What The Mosquito Gives AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL Traveling through the Dark William Stafford Unconditional Election David Baker 3 Making the Line (I) 44 Meter 46 Stress 47 Speech, Rhythm, and the Line Line Length Questions and Suggestions 60 Poems to Consider Sisyphus JAY LEEMING Signs Gjertrud Schnackenberg What We Know About Ghost Images DEBORAH BOGEN Eva Braun at Berchtesgaden VICTORIA CHANG Her Web 66 Erin Belieu One Art 67 Elizabeth Bishop 4 Making the Line (II) 69 Longer Lines 70 Lines of Mixed Length 72 Shorter Lines 74 Syllabics Prose Poems 78 Questions and Suggestions 80 Poems to Consider Meanwhile RICHARD SIKEN Balloons Sylvia Plath Don't Look Back KAY RYAN The Guides RIGOBERTO GONZALEZ the fever SIMONE MUENCH Gruss DEAN YOUNG 5 The Sound (and Look) of Sense 89 Visible Form 91 Repetition 95 Alliteration and Assonance 97 Rhyme 98 Onomatopoeia 101 Questions and Suggestions 102 Poems to Consider Dear Petrarch 104 Cate Marvin Do Not Disturb MARY RUEFLE Reapers 109 Jean Toomer January II 106 Charles Wright After the Trial 107 Weldon Kees PART II: CONTENT 6 Subject Matter 113 Subjects and Objects 115 Memory 120 Imagery 122 Resonant Detail 125 Questions and Suggestions 128 Poems to Consider Bitch 132 Carolyn Kizer The Man. His Bowl. His Raspberries. CLAUDIA RANKINE The Tropics in New York 133 Claude McKay Chrysanthemums SPENCER REECE The Beautician 130 Thom Gunn 7 Metaphor 136 Figuratively Speaking 139 A Name for Everything 143 Pattern and Motif 145 Conceits 148 Metaphoric Implication 150 Questions and Suggestions 152 Poems to Consider The Empire in the Air 153 Kevin Prufer My Arms PAUL GUEST Rowing JEFFREY HARRISON The Way Things Work JORIE GRAHAM Blue 159 Reginald Shepherd 8 Tale, Teller, and Tone 160 Narration, Pacing, and Tense 162 Persona 165 Point of View 168 Tone 172 Questions and Suggestions 174 Poems to Consider Personals 175 C. D. Wright [writing for a young man on the redline train: to his boy mistress] D.A. POWELL Bleeder STEPHEN DOBYNS Winter MARIE PONSOT The Wood-Pile 176 Robert Frost 9 The Mysteries of Language 182 The Sense of Nonsense 183 The Logic of the Analogic 188 Ordinary Strangeness 191 Translation 193 Questions and Suggestions 195 Poems to Consider Hunger YASSER ABDEL-LATIF Remember the Trains? 200 Martha Collins A Hunger So Honed 202 Tracy K. Smith Everything 203 Srikanth Reddy The Moon jaime sabines Part III: Process 10 Finding the Poem 207 Imitation and Models 208 Sources and Truth 212 Emotion and Thought 214 Getting into Words 218 Keeping a Poem Going 220 Questions and Suggestions 223 Poems to Consider The Other Cold War 227 Adrian Blevins Realism CZESLAW MILOSZ Off-Season at the Edge of the World DEBORA GREGER Visitation 228 Kathy Fagan Song 228 Brigit Pegeen Kelly 11 Devising and Revising 231 Exploring 231 Focusing 235 Shaping 237 Creating Community Submitting Your Work Questions and Suggestions 246 Poems to Consider Workshop 271 Billy Collins Immediate Revision 252 Chase Twichell Muse KIM ADDONIZIO The Next Poem 275 Dana Gioia Winter Conception 273 Eleanor Wilner Appendix I: Questions for Discussing and Revising Poetry 277 Appendix II: A Brief Glossary of Forms 283 Acknowledgments 295 Index of Authors and Titles 301 Index of Terms 307