A Poetry Handbook

I was a little concerned when I read the first sentence of this book: “Everyone knows that poets are born and not made in school.” I was concerned because I thought I was in for a glorification of the artist, someone gifted with the divine power of the muse, or whatever. But, as I continued reading, I discovered that it is not at all about this. On the same page, she writes, “This book is about the things that can be learned. It is about matters of craft, primarily. It is about the part of the poem that is a written document, as opposed to a mystical document....”

It is a book explaining the fundamentals of poetry. While I believe Oliver (who is one of my favorite poets) targeted the book at beginning poets, it is also very useful for someone who simply reads poetry, and does not necessarily create it.

After finishing the book I went back and looked at the first chapter, and figured out more what she meant in that first sentence. She writes on page 8, about the part of one's psyche that is necessary to create poetry: “Say you promise to be at your desk in the evenings, from seven to nine. It waits, it watches. If you are reliably there, it begins to show itself - soon it begins to arrive when you do. But if you are only there sometimes and are frequently late or inattentive, it will appear fleetingly, or it will not appear at all.”

And that is what she means by a poet, or any artist, being born not made in school. The kind of person who dedicates themselves to the craft of their art by regularly showing up and doing the work is not someone who has simply studied it in a classroom. There is something in them that needs to create that specific kind of art.

A Poetry Handbook is one of the best books I've read about the fundamentals of poetry. I have added it to my permanent bookshelf as a reference, and as something I will read again.

Picked this up as a reader of poetry, not a writer, and found it enriching. Some of it was familiar or intuitive but all of it was worth reading. Something to understand my response to poetry, which is all gelatinous feeling at the edge of the mind. Oh I knew the literary devices, but it starts to feel like taxidermy after a bit. Mary Oliver has something to say about how a poem breathes. I needed that.