Through a series of chapters designed as useful provocations, Redmond steers readers away from the 'default contemporary poem', urging fresh ways of thinking, insisting on 'the promise and opportunity of the blank page'. Traditional chapter topics like the sestina and the sonnet are abandoned in favour of more inspiring themes like variety, scale and background. The book drwas on a wide array of examples, from sixth-century Ireland to contemporary Poland, and diverse cultural analogies from baseball to film. Rather than thinking of poems and having meanings, the book suggest that we should think of them of being like plays, or computer games, as experiences designed for the reader's benefit.
Malden
Blackwell
2007
viii, 154 p.; 24 cm.
How to study literature
Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN: 9781405124805
John Redmond
1
The question of address -- Viewpoint -- The question of voices -- The question of scale -- Uses of repetition -- Image -- Short lines -- Long lines -- Diction -- Uses of syntax -- Tone -- Traditional forms: ode -- Traditional forms: epistle -- The question of background