Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse

Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse

<DIV>In this classic text, the distinguished poet and critic John Hollander surveys the schemes, patterns, and forms of English verse, illustrating each variation with an original and witty self-descriptive example. In new essays for this revised edition, J. D. McClatchy and Richard Wilbur each offer a personal take on why <I>Rhymes’s Reason</I> has played an integral role in the education of young poets and student scholars.<BR />  <BR /> “[Hollander] put everything he knew about the structures of poetry—those fabled magic tricks—into a sort of guidebook for those starting out on the trail up Mount Parnassus. . . . There are astonishments on every page.”—from the Foreword by J. D. McClatchy<BR />  <BR /> “This book’s wit and inventive spirit, its self-describing embodiments of form, now offer the beginning poet a happy chance to discover the technician in himself.”—from the Afterword by Richard Wilbur<BR />  <BR /> “How lucky the young poet who discovers this wisest and most lighthearted of manuals.”—James Merrill<BR />  <BR /> “What the E. B. White–William Strunk <I>The Elements of Style</I> is to the writing of prose, <I>Rhyme’s Reason</I> could very easily become to the writing of verse. . . . Marvelously comprehensive, clarifying and useful, [and] a delight to read.”—John Reardon, <I>Los Angeles Times Review of Books</I><BR />  <BR /> “A virtuoso performance and a mandatory text for poetry readers and practitioners alike.”—<I>ALA Booklist</I></DIV>