Reading Poetry: An Introduction

Contents Acknowledgements Preface Part One: Formal Introduction 1. What Is Poetry? How Do We Read It? 2. Rhythm and Metre 3. Significant Form: Metre and Syntax 4. Creative Form and the Arbitrary Nature of Language Part Two: Textual Strategies 5. Figurative Language 6. Poetic Metaphor 7. Hearing Voices in Poetic Texts 8. Voices with Attitude: Tone and Irony 9. Ambiguity Part Three: Texts in Contexts/Contexts in Texts 10. Introducing Contexts 11. Genre 12. The Sonnet 13. Allusion, Influence and Intertextuality 14. Poetry, Discourse, History 15. The Locations of Poetry 16. Post-Colonial Poetry Part Four: An Open-ended Conclusion 17. Closure, Pluralism and Undecidability Glossary Key to Poems and Passages Discussed or Used for Exercises Bibliography Index