Every now and then, poets who are ready to step up their level of poetry-writing ask me to recommend poems they might study and emulate. No, not to mimic someone else’s voice or style, but to discover their own preferences and improve their use of technique.
Art students do this all the time. i.e. They typically study and copy
the masters in order to find out what works and why. Then, having discovered a wide
assortment of useful tools and techniques, they go on to find their own creative methods
of working.
Conversely, I’ve found that many poets give little thought to poetry
forms, styles, techniques, tips for revision, or precision in their choices of
words. Worse, many poets don’t read poems by other poets, which handicaps them
without their knowing it as they have few options except for what comes to mind.
Since we have centuries and centuries of beautifully expressed poetry
to draw from, you can find all sorts of anthologies that collect poems around a
central theme, subject, or form. Also, The Norton Anthology of Poetry aims to put together as
many poems in English as possible.
To give you other anthologies I recommend with poems worth studying and enjoying,
here’s a list of ones I’ve reviewed in the order shown:
Villanelles anthology
As publishers send me new copies of poetry books and anthologies to
review, I’ll let you know of engaging poems and anthologies I’ve found that
connect well with readers - including you and me!
Remember: We're first readers of poetry. Then, Lord willing, we become poets prepared
to write poems that other people will want to read.
Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019, poet-writer
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Wonderful recommendations, Mary. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteJust saw this! God bless!
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