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Overview
The Poet Laureate's clear and entertaining account of how poetry works.
"Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Robert Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. "The medium of poetry is the human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is as physical or bodily an art as dancing."
As Poet Laureate, Pinsky is one of America's best spokesmen for poetry. In this fascinating book, he explains how poets use the "technology" of poetry—its sounds—to create works of art that are "performed" in us when we read them aloud.
He devotes brief, informative chapters to accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank and free verse. He cites examples from the work of fifty different poets—from Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert to W. C. Williams, Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Frank Bidart.
This ideal introductory volume belongs in the library of every poet and student of poetry.
Synopsis
The Poet Laureate's clear and entertaining account of how poetry works.
"Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Robert Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. "The medium of poetry is the human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is as physical or bodily an art as dancing."
As Poet Laureate, Pinsky is one of America's best spokesmen for poetry. In this fascinating book, he explains how poets use the "technology" of poetry—its sounds—to create works of art that are "performed" in us when we read them aloud.
He devotes brief, informative chapters to accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank and free verse. He cites examples from the work of fifty different poets—from Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert to W. C. Williams, Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Frank Bidart.
This ideal introductory volume belongs in the library of every poet and student of poetry.
Booknews
American poet, translator, and critic explains in nontechnical terms how the sounds of poetry embody the work of art that is performed in readers when they read it aloud. He discusses accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, and blank verse and free verse and illustrates them with the work of famous poets of the English language.
Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Oregon
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewSeptember 1998
Poet laureate Robert Pinsky knows poetry is alive and well in America, but he also knows that for the inexperienced reader, it can be intimidating. And far too often, the language used to help us understand poetry makes it appear all the more alienating. In his new essential introductory guide to the genre, Pinsky seeks to simplify our approach to and experience of poetry in order to amplify our enjoyment and appreciation of it — through sound.
"Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art," Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. "The medium of poetry is a human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is just as physical or bodily an art as dancing."
Writing plainly and specifically, for general readers as well as for poets, Pinsky explains in detail how the sounds of poetry embody the work of art that is "performed" in us when we read it aloud. As a poet, he is able to free poetry from a technical approach to reading, returning the elements of poetry to something akin to the experience of a poet writing it. In clear, informative chapters devoted to the sonic elements of poetry, Pinsky discusses essentials such as accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank verse and free verse. He illustrates these with examples form the work of some 50 poets, from Shakespeare, Milton, and Emily Dickinson to William Carlos Williams, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and Louise Glück. An ideal introductory volume, The Sounds of Poetryalsobelongs in the library of every poet and every student of poetry.
From the Publisher
"A painless journey through the foothills of poetry . . . One of the marvelous things about this book is Pinsky's deep recognition that a poem is successful not because of the poet's ambition or sense of purpose but because of the effect it creates in the reader, and in many readers over time"—Graham Christian, Boston PhoenixBooknews
American poet, translator, and critic explains in nontechnical terms how the sounds of poetry embody the work of art that is performed in readers when they read it aloud. He discusses accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, and blank verse and free verse and illustrates them with the work of famous poets of the English language.Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Oregon
David Barber
...[A] short book that should go a long way toward reuniting poetry and the public. -- The Atlantic MonthlyJoshua Weiner
Pinsky's primer is like no other — clear, thorough, provocative, and alive with the wit and passionate engagement of a great teacher, The Sounds of Poetry is sure to remain the most inspiring and most serviceable book of its kind for a long time to come.— Tikkun
James Logenbach
Pinsky hears America singing...Deeply personal...beautifully perceptive...Pinsky has created a keenly idiosyncratic acccount of the place of poetry in our time.— The Nation