(synopsis from The Art&Craft of Poetry)

Michael Bugeja shows you how to develop yourself and your poetic works by teaching you the key elements of publishable verse: developing your observational skills, turning life experiences into ideas for poems and acquiring fluency in a variety of poetic forms. You have to chance to work on exercises throughout the book to guide you through writing your own drafts and help you generate individual poems and books.

Anyone who is serious about writing and it doesn't just have to be poetry that you are interested in learning about. These ideas can be taken and used by anyone.

The layout of the book...instructions/exercises and examples so that you are not lost or floundering in ignorance. I also liked the fact that Mr Bugeja stated that "...but none of this is important; the only thing that is is what was in [the author]'s head at the time." To a learner like myself this means that you have to write what you feel, know and what is in your head. Don't write for the reader of your work, write for you. The reader will either love it or hate it, as in all things but the reader is not the be all and end all of your work.

learn more and start writing again.

more knowledgeable about the craft I am learning. It has also given me more insight into other forms of poetry that I might try my hand at.

Michael J. Bugeja has published five collections of his poetry. He is a full professor at the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. He lives in Athens, Ohio.

it is fun, easy to follow, informative and a good basis for anyone who is serious about learning the craft of writing.

Editorial Review from Amazon.com

Book Description
Poets will build their poetry-writing skills with help from past and contemporary masters--everything from generating ideas to examining the finished poem. They'll learn how to: * Use journals to develop their observational skills and turn life experiences into ideas for poems * Master the tools of the trade--voice, line, stanza, title, meter and rhyme * Acquire fluency in a variety of poetry formats and forms, everything from narrative, lyric and dramatic verse (traditional formats) to fixed, free and sequence styles (traditional forms) * Fine tune their work Exercises, assignments and sample work from more than 100 standout poets--everyone from Louise Glück to Walt Whitman--ensure that every reader, whether poet, student or bibliophile, discovers just how extraordinary poetry can be.

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Created Jul 30, 2006 at 2:28pm • Submit your own review...