Poetry Month: Books on Wiriting Poetry
Apr. 1st, 2026 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stonepicnicking_okapiIt's National Poetry Month in the US! Huzzah!
Since I often think of Wednesday as book day on this journal, I am going to mention four books I own about writing poetry with a bias toward metered verse, form, things that rhyme, ha, ha, etc.
What books (or other resources) have you found useful in writing and/or understanding poetry? Please drop recs in the comments.
The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco. This is a very useful dictionary for poetic forms. There's also a helpful section which lists poetic types by the number of lines.
Rules of the Dance: a Handbook for writing and reading metric verse by Mary Oliver. Easy to understand book which covers the basic elements of poetry sound, rhyme, meter, and scansion.
How to be a Poet by Jo Bell and Jane Commane. A collection of essays about the practicality of being a poet in today's world, including the importance of reading poetry, understanding the business of it, career paths, dealing with blocks, harsh realities, moving from an amateur to a professional mindset.
52: Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going. by Jo Bell. A set of weekly prompts for a year with examples. I started two years ago and stopped at 30. I hope to pick it back up one day.
The other book which is very good which I don't own is:
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by E. Boland and M. Strand. It goes into more depth about smaller subset of forms: villanelle, pantoum, sonnet, etc.
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And to start us off how about some Dorothy Parker? I like this part: The sweet transparency of glass /
The tenderness of April grass.
A Fairly Sad Tale By Dorothy Parker
I think that I shall never know
Why I am thus, and I am so.
Around me, other girls inspire
In men the rush and roar of fire.
The sweet transparency of glass,
The tenderness of April grass,
The durability of granite;
But me—I don't know how to plan it.
The lads I've met in Cupid's deadlock
Were—shall we say?—born out of wedlock.
They broke my heart, they stilled my song,
And said they had to run along,
Explaining, so to sop my tears,
First came their parents or careers.
But ever does experience
Deny me wisdom, calm, and sense!
Though she's a fool who seeks to capture
The twenty-first fine, careless rapture,
I must go on, till ends my rope,
Who from my birth was cursed with hope.
A heart in half is chaste, archaic;
But mine resembles a mosaic—
The thing's become ridiculous!
Why am I so? Why am I thus?
Since I often think of Wednesday as book day on this journal, I am going to mention four books I own about writing poetry with a bias toward metered verse, form, things that rhyme, ha, ha, etc.
What books (or other resources) have you found useful in writing and/or understanding poetry? Please drop recs in the comments.
The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco. This is a very useful dictionary for poetic forms. There's also a helpful section which lists poetic types by the number of lines.
Rules of the Dance: a Handbook for writing and reading metric verse by Mary Oliver. Easy to understand book which covers the basic elements of poetry sound, rhyme, meter, and scansion.
How to be a Poet by Jo Bell and Jane Commane. A collection of essays about the practicality of being a poet in today's world, including the importance of reading poetry, understanding the business of it, career paths, dealing with blocks, harsh realities, moving from an amateur to a professional mindset.
52: Write a poem a week. Start now. Keep going. by Jo Bell. A set of weekly prompts for a year with examples. I started two years ago and stopped at 30. I hope to pick it back up one day.
The other book which is very good which I don't own is:
The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms by E. Boland and M. Strand. It goes into more depth about smaller subset of forms: villanelle, pantoum, sonnet, etc.
---
And to start us off how about some Dorothy Parker? I like this part: The sweet transparency of glass /
The tenderness of April grass.
A Fairly Sad Tale By Dorothy Parker
I think that I shall never know
Why I am thus, and I am so.
Around me, other girls inspire
In men the rush and roar of fire.
The sweet transparency of glass,
The tenderness of April grass,
The durability of granite;
But me—I don't know how to plan it.
The lads I've met in Cupid's deadlock
Were—shall we say?—born out of wedlock.
They broke my heart, they stilled my song,
And said they had to run along,
Explaining, so to sop my tears,
First came their parents or careers.
But ever does experience
Deny me wisdom, calm, and sense!
Though she's a fool who seeks to capture
The twenty-first fine, careless rapture,
I must go on, till ends my rope,
Who from my birth was cursed with hope.
A heart in half is chaste, archaic;
But mine resembles a mosaic—
The thing's become ridiculous!
Why am I so? Why am I thus?
no subject
Date: 2026-04-02 07:38 am (UTC)And the Mary Oliver book …and the other books, in fact 😊