I understand that it is outdated and impractical to earnestly write something in metrical verse these days, but why not do it as an exercise? Why not learn how those rhythms work so that writers of free verse can be more deliberate in their poetic choices? That is precisely what Mary Oliver calls for. I’ve only taken one creative workshop in my time as a university student so perhaps this assessment of fellow contemporary writers is premature, but I was appalled at how the professor (whom I do admire greatly) and the other students seemed altogether uninterested in developing an awareness of historical form. One thing I like in particular about this book is Oliver’s emphasis on form. “It is written to empower the beginning writer who stands between two marvelous and complex things-an experience (or an idea or a feeling), and the urge to tell about it in the best possible conjunction of words.”Īnd empower she does. So quite frankly, given that the basic formal elements of poetry discussed in this book are vital and that Mary Oliver treats them in a way that is simple, honest, and shimmers like poetry itself, there is absolutely no reason for any reader or writer of poetry to ignore this little handbook. Maybe somewhere down the line a professor glossed over the principles of scansion as though we already knew them (most of us don’t). I never learned about vowel and consonant sounds in my poetry seminars. A lot of people say this book is a good reiteration of things they learned in their college classes, but I sincerely think it’s an introduction we all need.

A Poetry Handbook is something I wish I had read a lot earlier in my career as a student of literature, to say nothing of the tentative ventures I’ve made into writing poetry since I was young.

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