How to Read a Poem Paperback – October 20, 2006

Language was exquisite

What a feast one finds here for the lover and budding lover of poetry. This fascinating and engaging book, complex but clear, is designed as an introduction to poetry for both students and interested readers, but is rather more than that. It begins with interesting discussions on the 'end of criticism,' 'politics and rhetoric,' the 'death of experience' and 'imagination.' From here, Eagleton dives into poetry's relations: to prose, morality, fiction, pragmatism and language. A look at the Formalists is followed by an extended discussion on meaning and form. Eagleton then provides some discussion of poetry in performance and two American examples of critical analysis before walking us through the reader's and analyst's magic land of measures for exploration and enjoyment - a poem's tone, mood, intensity, texture, ambiguity, rhyme, rythm and meter, imagery, syntax, grammar and punctuation. He ends the book with a separate section in which he discusses four nature poems. Overall, a wonderful book of a timeless quality, useful as a guide for both the reader and the writer. I found this book so helpful as a guide to modern poetry criticism and analysis.

Eagleton writes well, no one denies that. And he's got some trenchant observations and good analytical skills. But his books do seem to pump out very familiar themes to an Eagleton reader, such as Marxist literary criticism and the Russian Formalists, with very little variations on those themes. And he seems to over-elaborate many sentences and many arguments, fiddling around with a single idea but expressing it in twenty different ways, one after another, swooning with uncertain effects at times. The book is at its most superfluous in the chapter on Russian formalists (chapter 3), which could be amputated painlessly. One could also lop off chapter 1 with little inconvenience, and weed off from Chapter 4 anything other than Eagleton's close readings. What would be left after doing all that is a superb work of applied literary criticism. And some readings ARE superb. He applies finely-tuned reading techniques to a number of poets, and the result is a thrilling encounter with multiple meanings, provocative interpretations, an array of techniques and effects working deftly together. In short, what studying literature is all about. Just for that, How to Read a Poem is worth it. And for brilliant phrases like this one: "In everyday life, talking about imaginary people as though they were real is known as psychosis; in universities, it is known as literary criticism" (p. 22).

Fast shipping. Description was accurate.

I got this as a textbook for my undergraduate Poetry workshop. While it has plenty of information about poetry inside, Eagleton is incredibly hard to comprehend, especially for beginnings. As always, he is long-winded and makes things way more complicated then he needs to. If you have to get this book for school, be prepared to spend some extra time deciphered Eagleton's writings, especially if you are new to poetry.

I think this may be a book for people who have bought; read and enjoyed poetry beyond the duties of formal education. Terry Eagleton brings so much more to the reading of a poem -and still rings true.

This is one of the worst books I've ever read. I am an English teacher with a Masters in English and Education, and I love poetry! However, this book makes me hate poetry. The author is a pompous narcissist that makes bold claims (using words and phrases like ALL the time and ALWAYS for his own opinion and ideas), and it offers no citations or references from where he draws his ideas. The book references lines from poetry, but doesn't have the poems in the book for the reader to make the connections he is making. It is confusing, repetitive, and boring. Do NOT read this book unless you are required to, and even then, I hope you survive the book without hating poetry altogether.

No editor for this book = big mistake. Examples intended to bolster academic information were often limited in scope and off the point. Some were clearly too personal for an academic book, disparaging to American poetry, and ignorant of obvious feminine points of view.