How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse by Thomas C Foster (PDF)

Description

From the bestselling author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor comes this essential primer to reading poetry like a professor that unlocks the keys to enjoying works from Lord Byron to the Beatles.No literary form is as admired and feared as poetry. Admired for its lengthy pedigree—a line of poets extending back to a time before recorded history—and a ubiquitous presence in virtually all cultures, poetry is also revered for its great beauty and the powerful emotions it evokes. But the form has also instilled trepidation in its many admirers mainly because of a lack of familiarity and knowledge. Poetry demands more from readers—intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually—than other literary forms. Most of us started out loving poetry because it filled our beloved children’s books from Dr. Seuss to Robert Louis Stevenson. Eventually, our reading shifted to prose and later when we encountered poetry again, we had no recent experience to make it feel familiar. But reading poetry doesn’t need to be so overwhelming. In an entertaining and engaging voice, Thomas C. Foster shows readers how to overcome their fear of poetry and learn to enjoy it once more. From classic poets such as Shakespeare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Edna St. Vincent Millay to later poets such as E.E. Cummings, Billy Collins, and Seamus Heaney, How to Read Poetry Like a Professor examines a wide array of poems and teaches readers:How to read a poem to understand its primary meaning.The different technical elements of poetry such as meter, diction, rhyme, line structures, length, order, regularity, and how to learn to see these elements as allies rather than adversaries.How to listen for a poem’s secondary meaning by paying attention to the echoes that the language of poetry summons up.How to hear the music in poems—and the poetry in songs!With How to Read Poetry Like a Professor, readers can rediscover poetry and reap its many rewards.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “[An] accessible guide… [Foster’s] discussion of symbolism is particularly effective and may help readers learn to actually enjoy the experience of interpreting a poem… Students struggling to understand poetry, or even English instructors struggling to teach it, could benefit immensely from Foster’s guidance.” — Publishers Weekly“Foster’s enthusiasm is infectious…he has clearly enjoyed teaching and sharing his love of literature with his students during his long career. How to Read Poetry Like a Professor is not unlike that freshman English class that everyone vies to enroll in—entertaining and informative without being intimidating. The curriculum is on point, and in the end, you’ll have the tools to truly ‘get’ poetry, with all its manifest themes and variations.” — BookPage From the Back Cover An essential primer to reading poetry that unlocks the keys to enjoying works from Lord Byron to the BeatlesNo literary form is as admired and feared as poetry. Admired for its lengthy pedigree—a line of poets extending back to a time before recorded history—and a ubiquitous presence in virtually all cultures, poetry is also revered for its great beauty and the powerful emotions it evokes. But the form has also instilled trepidation in its many admirers mainly because of a lack of familiarity and knowledge. Poetry demands more from readers—intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually—than other literary forms. Most of us started out loving poetry because it filled our beloved children’s books from Dr. Seuss to Robert Louis Stevenson. Eventually, our reading shifted to prose, and later when we encountered poetry again, we had no recent experience to make it feel familiar. But reading poetry doesn’t need to be so overwhelming. In an entertaining and engaging voice, Thomas C. Foster shows readers how to overcome their fear of poetry and learn to enjoy it once more. How to Read Poetry Like a Professor examines a wide array of poems and teaches readers:• How to read a poem to understand its primary meaning. • The different technical elements of poetry such as meter, diction, rhyme, line structures, length, order, and regularity, and how to learn to see these elements as allies rather than adversaries. • How to listen for a poem’s secondary meaning by paying attention to the echoes that the language of poetry summons up. • How to hear the music in poems—and the poetry in songs!With How to Read Poetry Like a Professor, readers can rediscover poetry and reap its many rewards. About the Author Thomas C. Foster, author of How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Reading the Silver Screen, is professor emeritus of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he taught classes in contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry, as well as creative writing and freelance writing. He is also the author of several books on 20th-century British and Irish literature and poetry. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐FANTASTIC book for people wanting to brush up on their poetry comprehension skills. This book covers a wide range of topics, from general notes to more intermediate topics. I’d say this is for anyone who wants that good ol’ reading comprehension that everyone’s been talking about but feel to overwhelmed on where to start.

⭐If you have read the other Foster books on literature and novels, then the set-up and arrangement of this newest title (March 2018) will not surprise you or disrupt the flow of your reading into the ideas presented.Foster provides interesting commentary in the introduction that would be well-suited for the upper level grades as an re-introduction of sorts to poetry and poetic forms. Foster writes, “I think that for most people, however, is the matter isn’t so much not liking poetry as feeling somehow overmatched, as if it were a contest and the other side had better equipment and more skill” (3). For the rest of the introduction, Foster presents poetry in its bare-bones form and puts the would-be poetry reader at ease for presenting what both bring to the table by way of text and reader.In “Sounds of Sense” and “Sound Beyond Sense,” Foster brings the reader gently back to poetry if the reader is patient with returning to some of that early learning in meter and rhyme and literary devices. For the upper grade reader, these elements of the book may serve well as have the other two books mentioned prior. Early on within this book, however, I note that that Foster is reserved in the examples used and they seem more accessible and familiar and I have to think that this is due in part to the potential fear and trepidation poetry brings along with it.The rest of the book presents like the literature and novels with quippy titles followed by a short chapter which includes a definition of the term, and exploration of the term, and samples from the larger poetry community.As more and more classroom teachers seek out nonfiction text for the classroom, this one would be very nice not only as a primer for poetry but as an informing vehicle for the sounds, techniques, and moves we seek in prose.

⭐As helpful as the “read literature like a professor–for kids” book, but now for poetry!The book is broken down into logical sections. Each section explains the basics (and throws in a few advanced things you can look up on your own) with several examples from well-known poets. It also has some humorous bits that are a bit self-deprecating of the human race and poetry in general.

⭐My dad was educated as an English teacher; I’m a mathematician. My dad used to taunt me with the Chaucer quoted in this book. In my dotage, I thought I’d learn about poetry. This is a great book but I’m afraid I’m a hopeless poet.

⭐A thorough guide to poetry. I suspect that everyone could be reminded of some detail of how to read poetry in this book. It does exactly what it should

⭐If you want an accessible view into the world and history of poetry, this is the book. It’s thorough, informative, and entertaining.

⭐I have all of the other How to Like a Professor books and this one is just as good as the other ones.

⭐The book does not teach poetry. Rather, it gives bits and pieces of things to consider about poetry. The examples were few, not enough. As I mentioned, The Odd Less Traveled by Stephen Try is ten times this book by Foster. And I like foster, have purchased and read all his books.

⭐This is now the third book that I have read by Foster. Each time has been the same – un unstoppable rush to the next chapter, followed by a dismay that all things must end.I have, it seems, gone through life blithely oblivious to everything that has been around me. I have read thousands of books since those days when my neighbour brought some books back from the newly opened library and gave them to me to read and, in so doing, changed my life. A neighbour whose value I was also blithely oblivious to.Since reading Foster, I have been less blithe, less oblivious (and, to put this into perspective, “That time of year thou mayst in me behold…”) and the experience is…well…discombobulating. Offsetting the awe, the energy, the wonderment and bewilderment is an -almost- overwhelming sense of regret that I Didn’t Pay Attention To Any Of This Before. The narrative that my mind has constructed over recent months or years is that I thought I was living my life, but as the years go by, I realise that I have only ever lived the smallest part of it. Foster’s books have fed that perception by essentially saying, “Look again. See what you have missed. Now look again.”As for the tone and the manner in which he writes, I am sure that he will have his detractors. Personally, I find it comforting, supportive, collegial. He establishes a relationship with his readers – he’s patient, self-deprecating, insightful and never imposing. What you are left with is a clear understanding of just how deep his passion for the written word is and how consummate he is in his role as an educator.If you’re like me and have almost-lived your life, and you need a gentle doctor to lift the gauzes from your bruised eyes while they show you the world as it is to most likely everyone else, do like I did – buy all of Thomas C. Foster’s books and try to stop yourself from scarfing them down. Where possible, I limited myself to no more than a couple of chapters a day. And that has made all the difference.

⭐A fantastic easy-to-read guide to get more out of poetry. Written in a very un-academic style (despite the title). You will be able to read poetry and get more out it after reading this book. Excellent.

⭐I purchased this because I recently bought a book of poetry and found I couldn’t understand a thing the poet was trying to say It has been a very long time since I was in school ! I still am not an expert; however, the information provided in this book was a very helpful reminder. The author has a sense of humour and throughout the book he uses the work of various poets to illustrate his points. Some were old favorites which encouraged me to revisit their poetry. I would recommend this book at a “start” for someone new to poetry or to someone such as myself who has forgotten everything they knew.

⭐Plein d’humour et super intéressant ! Merci à cet auteur, son livre How to read literature like a professor m’avait beaucoup aidé pour mon bac (j’étais en section internationale) et aujourd’hui j’ai acheté toute la série, j’adore !!

⭐

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