Invitation to Poetry: The Pleasures of Studying Poetry and Poetics

For anyone who has ever wanted to become fluent in the language of poetry, Invitation to Poetry will prove an essential guide. This book:

• Teaches the serious student how to ‘speak poetry’ through an in-depth examination of the traditional features and technical vocabulary of poetic language;


• Examines British and American materials from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries in order to give students a sense of a range of different period styles, poetic projects, and strategies;


• Explicitly examines, questions and challenges the relationship of poetry to literary periods and canons;


• Offers the technical tools essential for close reading and interpretation across a broad chronological spectrum.