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The bestselling author of Under the Tuscan Sun brings poetry
out of the classroom and into the homes of everyday readers.

Before she fell in love with Tuscany, Frances Mayes fell in love with verse. After publishing five books of poetry and teaching creative writing for more than twenty-five years, Mayes is no stranger to the subject. In The Discovery of Poetry, an accessible "field guide" to reading and writing poetry, she shares her passion with readers. Beginning with basic terminology and techniques, from texture and sound to rhyme and repetition, Mayes shows how focusing on one aspect of a poem can help you to better understand, appreciate, and enjoy the reading and writing experience. In addition to many creative and helpful composition ideas, following each lyrical and lively discussion is a thoughtful selection of poems. With its wonderful anthology from Shakespeare to Jamaica Kinkaid, The Discovery of Poetry is an insightful, invaluable guide to what Mayes calls "the natural pleasures of language-a happiness we were born to have."

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Invitation(p. ix)
• 1. Sources and Approaches(p. 1)
• The Origin of a Poem(p. 1)
• The Art of Reading(p. 5)
• Poems(p. 14)
• 2. Words: Texture and Sound(p. 24)
• Texture of Language(p. 24)
• Choosing Words(p. 29)
• The Muscle of Language(p. 32)
• Sound Patterns(p. 33)
• The Surprise of Language(p. 38)
• The Kinship of Words(p. 39)
• Poems(p. 48)
• 3. Images: The Perceptual Field(p. 64)
• Three Image Poems(p. 66)
• Images and Perception(p. 70)
• Literal Images(p. 72)
• Poems(p. 75)
• Figurative Images(p. 82)
• Symbols(p. 97)
• Poems(p. 105)
• 4. The Speaker: The Eye of the Poem(p. 132)
• The Invented "I"(p. 134)
• The Personal "I" Speaker(p. 139)
• The Public Voice(p. 144)
• The Invisible Speaker(p. 146)
• Poems(p. 148)
• 5. Rhyme and Repetition(p. 158)
• Rhyme(p. 162)
• Poems(p. 171)
• Repetition(p. 176)
• Poems(p. 191)
• 6. Meter: The Measured Flow(p. 207)
• What Is Meter?(p. 209)
• Scansion(p. 211)
• Iambic Pentameter(p. 213)
• More Key Meters(p. 221)
• Two Other Metrical Options(p. 234)
• Rhythm and Meaning(p. 239)
• Poems(p. 242)
• 7. Free Verse(p. 255)
• The Genesis of Free Verse(p. 257)
• The Free Verse Craft of the Line(p. 260)
• Voice(p. 272)
• Free Verse, the Tradition and Beyond(p. 272)
• Poems(p. 274)
• 8. Traditional and Open Forms(p. 287)
• Looking at Forms(p. 289)
• Traditional Forms(p. 293)
• Poems(p. 313)
• Open Forms(p. 325)
• Prose Poems(p. 329)
• Open Forms Poems(p. 331)
• 9. Subject and Style(p. 346)
• Types of Poems(p. 347)
• Style(p. 357)
• Poems on Four Subjects(p. 364)
• Poems(p. 386)
• 10. Interpretation: The Wide Response(p. 402)
• What Is Meaning?(p. 408)
• Gaps and Holes(p. 409)
• Power Sources(p. 416)
• Critical Discriminations(p. 433)
• Poems(p. 440)
• 11. A Poet's Handbook(p. 457)
• Invoking Your Muse(p. 457)
• Beginning with a White Page(p. 459)
• Suggestions for Writing and Revising(p. 459)
• Exercises(p. 463)
• Your Poems out the Door(p. 471)
• Index of Titles(p. 482)
• Index of Authors and Titles(p. 487)
• Index of Terms and Topics(p. 493)

Extracto provisto por Syndetics

Sources and ApproachesIf I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.-emily dickinsonThe Origin of a PoemWhat motivates a poet to write? When Emily Dickinson said about her art, "My business is circumference," she was talking about her desire to explore experience by drawing it into a circle of her own, a world. Similarly, Wallace Stevens wanted each poem to give "a sense of the world." D. H. Lawrence thought the essence of good poetry was "stark directness." Telling or uncovering truth is the prime motive of poets like Muriel Rukeyser, who once asked, "What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open." William Wordsworth valued "the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings." When William Carlos Williams called a poem "a machine made of words," he simply meant to say that the best-formed poems function smoothly, with oiled and well-fitted parts, not far from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's ideal, "The best words in the best order."Many poets aspire to reach "the condition of music"-some aim for the heavenly music of the spheres, while others want the words to "boogie." William Butler Yeats thought, "We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry." His writing emerged from the internal fault line between conflicting thoughts and emotions. Yeats's desire to understand his human condition echoes Walt Whitman, who wanted the reader to "stand by my side and look in the mirror with me." For Matthew Arnold the impulse was external, not internal. His poetry came from "actions, human actions; possessing an inherent interest in themselves, and which are to be communicated in an interesting manner by the art of the poet." Some pull of inner necessity draws the poet to the page, whether to explore a problem, pursue a rhythm, break apart logic, express an emotion, tell a story, or simply to sing. When asked the familiar question, "Why do you write?", writers often answer, "Because I have to," (though prose writer Flannery O'Connor replied, "Because I'm good at it."). The impetus of having to, for the reasons named above, gives poetry its fire and urgency.Because of all these diverse sources, no one ever has come up with a satisfactory definition of poetry, just as no one can define music or art. Those who want to proclaim what is or isn't poetry have thankless work cut out for themselves. No umbrella is wide enough to cover the myriad versions, subjects, and forms. If a poem interests you, better to just go along with Walt Whitman's assertion, "...what I assume you shall assume, / For every atom belonging to me, as good belongs to you." Reasons for reading and for writing seem almost as numerous as atoms.Sometimes poets write to recreate an experience.A Blessing(James Wright, 1927-1980)Just off the highway to Rochester, Minnesota,Twilight bounds softly forth on the grass.And the eyes of those two Indian poniesDarken with k Excerpted from The Discovery of Poetry: A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Poems by Frances Mayes All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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Library Journal Review

Most readers know Mayes as the best-selling author of Under the Tuscan Sun, but she is also the author of five books of poetry and a former creative writing instructor. In this guide to reading and writing verse, Mayes's goal is to illustrate that poetry is accessible and fun rather than intimidating. Discussing rhyme, free verse, choice of subject, and style, she explains, in plain language, how poetry works. To prove her point, she includes hundreds of examples of poetry from different time periods. The chapter on interpretation, including a student's sample essay, may be helpful to students who are usually mortified by assignments that require an interpretation of a poem. The final chapter is a short lesson on poetry writing. Writing exercises, highlighted by the phrase "In Your Notebook," appear throughout and can be used for ideas and to jog the memory. A well-written book with good examples and solid advice, this manual will be appreciated in public and academic libraries alike.-Lisa J. Cihlar, Monroe P.L., WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Best known as the author of Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany and other memoirs of life in the Italian province, Frances Mayes until recently chaired of San Francisco State's creative writing department, and has published five books of poems. The Discovery of Poetry: A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Poems is the product of all her reading and writing experiences, with chapters on "Meter," "Rhyme and Repetition," "Subject and Style," covering all the bases with plenty of canonical exemplars. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

A native of Georgia, Frances Mayes received a B.A. from the University of Florida and an M.A. from San Francisco State University. She is a creative writing professor at San Francisco State University.

Mayes' memoir "Under the Tuscan Sun: At Home in Italy," about buying and restoring an abandoned villa in Cortona, was a national best seller in 1996. It became the basis of a feature film of the same name in 2003 starring Diane Lane.

In addition her travel writing, Frances Mayes is the author of six books of poetry and is a respected essayist and gourmet cook. Frances' title Under Magnolia is a 2015 New York Times bestseller.

(Bowker Author Biography)