J. Paul Hunter

I picked this up to read in conjunction with the tutorial on creating poetry I was reading - one of it''s suggestions was to read more poetry so I grabbed this book. I hadn't planned on reading this cover to cover, but that's more or less what I accomplished, out of order. A superb collection. Will be browsed many more times.

A seminal work of Fielding criticism. Hunter is also a wonderfully clear writer.

A rich, wonderfully broad collection that I would be wanting to take off to the proverbial island with...the modern mixed in with the historical makes for easy browsing in a great big book of poetry.

The Norton Introduction to Poetry has two parts: half is tutorial and half is anthology. The tutorial part is my favorite. In various sections, the editor (J. Paul Hunter) describes the role of subject, theme, and tone; text (including speaker, situation and setting, word choice, figurative language, and structure); and various contexts. For each subsection, he shares at least one poem and discusses the particular aspects of that poem. Since I still struggle with some poetry and I am a show more beginner each time I approach it, I enjoy the tutorial aspect. show less