I read this book to prepare myself to lead a book group discussion on some poems we elected to read. It was very readable, informative, and humorous in all the right places. If you are venturing into reading poetry and don't know beans about it, this is the book for you. ( )

Looks like a great resource for the writing student, but it was more than I needed. I was curious how he approached the subject, and I learned quite a bit about poetry structure that I hadn't known. ( )

This is what I was looking for when I read Roy Thomas' "How to Read a Poem". This breaks it down right down to basics. I'm now feeling like I can confidently jump into reading some poetry.

This is the book I wanted and needed to read, though I did not know that when I found it on a best-of list and put a hold on it at our library.

I committed to reading poetry more than 2 years ago now but I had not had any type of formal poetry education since a one semester elective course in my junior year at university. Prior to that, there were a couple of weeks of learning to read and write poetry in 7th grade english where I famously wrote a haiku about love that my teacher thought was outstanding. Perhaps it was this that has led me all these years later to want to really learn and read more.

Professor Foster's book is entertaining and humorous but it was also serious and I learned topics over again that I had forgotten and I learned much that was new to me. Now that I have finished, I feel less intimidated by the poems I am reading and more aware of what a poem is and does.

The two chapters that stood out for me were Chapter 5, The Long (or short) Gray Line about line length and line breaks and Chapter 6, Our Word is Our Bond which is about word choice or poetic diction. I think more than any areas of this book, these two chapters gave me real insight into the construction of and how to read poetry.

I would have liked that he spend more time on modernist poetry (there is a chapter at the end but not enough, in my opinion) but there were still examples spread throughout the book that he used to illustrate the topics of each of his chapters.

There were also many examples of poems and poetry books by authors I have not read and have put on my TBR list for the future including William Carlos Williams' Sour Grapes, Danusha Lameris' The Moons of August, Marianne Moore's poetry, and Christina Rossetii's poetry.

This is just an excellent little book for a novice poetry reader like myself. A 5-star seal of approval from me. ( )

This was a great companion for anyone interested in expanding their sense of what poetry is, how it is utilized, and how to make your own better. Foster is a great writer, and he provides many examples to illustrate his points and dive further into the sea that is his subject matter. It was well organized, original, witty, and worthwhile in both its presentation and its application. Overall, it was a great read and I'm eager to read the other two books in his series.

5 stars! ( )