Poetic Form: An Introduction

Poetic Form offers a clear, compact, and entertaining introduction to the history, structure, and practice of the language’s most popular verse forms. Written with humor and wit, this guide aims to convey the pleasures of poetry — a sestina’s delightful gamesmanship, an epigram’s barbed wit, a haiku's deceptive simplicity — and the fun of exploring the poetic forms. Each chapter defines a particular verse form, briefly describes its history, and offers examples. Writing exercises challenge ...