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Rhyme's rooms : the architecture of poetry / Brad Leithauser.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 2022Copyright date: ©2022Edition: First editionDescription: x, 350 pages ; 22 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780525655053
  • 0525655050
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Foreword: A first step, a first stop -- Meeting the Funesians -- The prosodic contract -- Poetic architecture -- Stanzas -- Enjambment -- Defining and refining -- The marriage of meter and rhyme (I) --Iambic pentameter -- Iambic tetrameter -- Rhyme and rhyme decay -- Spelling and the unexpected rhyme -- Rhyme poverty, rhyme richness -- Rhymes, and how we really talk -- Off rhyme : when good rhymes go bad --Rim rhyme -- The marriage of meter and rhyme (II) -- Wordplay and concision -- The look of poetry -- Song lyrics -- Dining with the Funesians -- Drinking with the Funesians -- The essential conservatism of poetry -- The essential radicalism of poetry.
Summary: "From the widely acclaimed poet, novelist, critic, and scholar, a lucid and edifying exploration of the building blocks of poetry and how they've been used over the centuries to assemble the most imperishable poems. We treasure our greatest poetry, Brad Leithauser reminds us in these pages, "not for its what but its how." In chapters on everything from iambic pentameter to how stanzas are put together to "rhyme and the way we really talk," Leithauser takes a deep dive into that how-the very architecture of poetry. He explains how meter and rhyme work in fruitful opposition ("Meter is prospective; rhyme is retrospective"), how the weirdnesses of spelling in English are a boon to the poet; why an off rhyme will often succeed where a perfect rhyme would not; why Shakespeare and Frost can sound so similar, despite the centuries separating them. And Leithauser is just as likely to invoke Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, or Boz Scaggs as he is Chaucer or Milton, Bishop or Swenson, providing enlightening play-by-plays of their memorable lines. Here is both an indispensable learning tool and a delightful journey into the art of the poem--a chance for new poets and readers of poetry to grasp the fundamentals, and for experienced poets and readers to rediscover excellent works in all their fascinating detail"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 808.1 L533 Available 33111010771612
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the widely acclaimed poet, novelist, critic, and scholar, a lucid and edifying exploration of the building blocks of poetry and how they've been used over the centuries to assemble the most imperishable poems.

"Anyone wanting to learn how to remodel, restore, or build a poem from the foundation up, will find this room-by-room guide on the architecture of poetry a warm companion." --Tomás Q. Morín, author of Machete

We treasure our greatest poetry, Brad Leithauser reminds us in these pages, "not for its what but its how ." In chapters on everything from iambic pentameter to how stanzas are put together to "rhyme and the way we really talk," Leithauser takes a deep dive into that how --the very architecture of poetry. He explains how meter and rhyme work in fruitful opposition ("Meter is prospective; rhyme is retrospective"); how the weirdnesses of spelling in English are a boon to the poet; why an off rhyme will often succeed where a perfect rhyme would not; why Shakespeare and Frost can sound so similar, despite the centuries separating them. And Leithauser is just as likely to invoke Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, or Boz Scaggs as he is Chaucer or Milton, Bishop or Swenson, providing enlightening play-by-plays of their memorable lines.

Here is both an indispensable learning tool and a delightful journey into the art of the poem--a chance for new poets and readers of poetry to grasp the fundamentals, and for experienced poets and readers to rediscover excellent works in all their fascinating detail.

Portions of this book have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The New York Review of Books.

"This is a Borzoi book"

Includes bibliographical references.

Foreword: A first step, a first stop -- Meeting the Funesians -- The prosodic contract -- Poetic architecture -- Stanzas -- Enjambment -- Defining and refining -- The marriage of meter and rhyme (I) --Iambic pentameter -- Iambic tetrameter -- Rhyme and rhyme decay -- Spelling and the unexpected rhyme -- Rhyme poverty, rhyme richness -- Rhymes, and how we really talk -- Off rhyme : when good rhymes go bad --Rim rhyme -- The marriage of meter and rhyme (II) -- Wordplay and concision -- The look of poetry -- Song lyrics -- Dining with the Funesians -- Drinking with the Funesians -- The essential conservatism of poetry -- The essential radicalism of poetry.

"From the widely acclaimed poet, novelist, critic, and scholar, a lucid and edifying exploration of the building blocks of poetry and how they've been used over the centuries to assemble the most imperishable poems. We treasure our greatest poetry, Brad Leithauser reminds us in these pages, "not for its what but its how." In chapters on everything from iambic pentameter to how stanzas are put together to "rhyme and the way we really talk," Leithauser takes a deep dive into that how-the very architecture of poetry. He explains how meter and rhyme work in fruitful opposition ("Meter is prospective; rhyme is retrospective"), how the weirdnesses of spelling in English are a boon to the poet; why an off rhyme will often succeed where a perfect rhyme would not; why Shakespeare and Frost can sound so similar, despite the centuries separating them. And Leithauser is just as likely to invoke Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, or Boz Scaggs as he is Chaucer or Milton, Bishop or Swenson, providing enlightening play-by-plays of their memorable lines. Here is both an indispensable learning tool and a delightful journey into the art of the poem--a chance for new poets and readers of poetry to grasp the fundamentals, and for experienced poets and readers to rediscover excellent works in all their fascinating detail"-- Provided by publisher.

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