This is a straightforward introduction to the art of poetry. Burton Raffel, a noted poet and translator, discusses the meaning, structure, and techniques of poetry. The generous use of examples from the best of poetry is used to demonstrate the specifics of poetics. ( )

I always thought I didn't like poetry until I read Edna St. Vincent Millay's Renascence. After that, I picked this book up at a bargain sale. Rather than a chronological progression of poems, each chapter takes a different aspect of a poem, such as imagery or rhythm, and explains them in detail, using poems as an illustration. Of course it's a little bit like reading a text book at times, but I think it greatly increased my ability to appreciate poetry in general. ( )