• Offers a detailed discussion and introduction to poetic technique
• Emphasis on practical criticism helps students gain a new appreciation for poetry and to really learn how poems work
• New companion website includes links to poems cited in the text and sample student essays
• Very accessible for students, with clear, logical analysis, entertaining examples and a glossary with coherent definitions
• References throughout are to the new fifth edition of The Norton Anthology - the standard set-text in most undergraduate poety courses

New to this edition

• The second edition is accompanied by a companion website, including links to all the poems cited in the text and sample student essays
• The new edition will use an additional six poems to provide running examples within the various chapters, as well as using Derek Walcott's 'Nearing Forty'
• The book's coverage will be extended to include discussion of poetic sequences and narrative poetry
• All references to the 'Norton Anthology of English Literature' will be updated to refer to the current (4th) edition
• The book will include an annotated bibliography

Readership: A-level and undergraduate students of English literature and language, practical/literary criticism and poetics. Historians or modern linguists interested in the basics of English poetry. General readers of poetry at all levels.

John Lennard, Professor-Elect of British and American Literature, UWI-Mona, Jamaica

"Lennard succeeds in being as exhaustive as he can possibly be..." - Caroline Bertoneche, Universite de Provence

"Very readable... gives and excellent overview of poetry in English and will explain rhythm, metre and style." - The Observer, February 2006

Introduction
1: Metre
2: Form
3: Layout
4: Punctuation
5: Lineation
6: Rhyme
7: Diction
8: Syntax
9: History
10: Biography
11: Gender
12: Exams
Glossary and Index of Technical Terms
Index of Poems and Poets Quoted and Cited
Select Bibliography and Further Reading