false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173436143m/288064.jpg 288064 3 As its title implies, Stephen Dobyns's rigorous collection of essays about poetry celebrates Coleridge's dictum that poetry is the best words in the best order. Dobyns's probing examinations of the elements of poetry--metaphor, pacing, tone--and his study of the evolution of free verse are not for Sunday-sunset versifiers. They are strenuous, meaty, and wholly satisfying fare, intended for serious students of poetry. Dobyns, the author of eight volumes of poetry (and 17 novels), believes, like Baudelaire, that "each poem ... has an optimum number of words [and] an optimum number of pieces of information ... and to go over or under even by one word weakens the whole." Poetry, he says, belongs to the reader, not the writer, and as readers, "at the close of the poem, we must not only feel that our expectations have been met but that our lives have been increased, if only to a small degree." And, if that's not challenge enough for the writer, add to it "that the conclusion of a given piece must appear both inevitable and surprising." The final third of the book comprises chapters on four writers, each of whom represents to Dobyns an ideal in poetry: Rainer Maria Rilke, who Dobyns says worked harder than any other poet to develop and change his work; Osip Mandelstam, an exemplar of moral centeredness; Anton Chekhov, for his sense of personal freedom; and Yannis Ritsos, for his "sense of the mystery that surrounds us." 1024018 1996 Best Words, Best Order, 2nd Edition: Essays on Poetry total:109|5:36|4:41|3:24|2:7|1:1| 109 431 163 7 5 0 false false Thu Apr 10 05:26:41 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 05:06:17 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 17:28:54 -0700 2007 Fri Sep 28 09:17:30 -0700 2007 Czeslaw Milosz's The Witness of Poetry (Milosz), but also less interfering between reader and poem (and thereby slightly condescending) than Edward Hirsch's How To Read A Poem (Hirsch). Mostly, this is an excellent read into the ev...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Wed Dec 05 15:47:48 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 15:48:55 -0800 2007
R]]> 5 0 false false Sat Dec 08 08:43:34 -0800 2007 Sat Dec 08 08:44:16 -0800 2007 0 0 false false Tue Mar 20 21:05:17 -0700 2007 Thu Mar 22 12:17:45 -0700 2007 5 0 false false Mon Dec 03 01:16:29 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 01:16:55 -0800 2007 4 0 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 29 01:48:06 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 29 01:48:06 -0700 2007 0 0 false false Tue Nov 10 10:45:12 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:45:12 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Nov 08 20:44:50 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 08 20:44:50 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Wed Oct 21 09:56:16 -0700 2009 Wed Oct 21 09:56:18 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Thu Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Wed Sep 30 19:00:45 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 19:00:45 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun Sep 27 21:46:19 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 27 21:46:19 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Sep 06 21:38:33 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 06 21:38:33 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sat Sep 26 09:09:48 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 14 12:17:02 -0700 2009 Sat Sep 26 09:09:48 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Aug 07 19:16:33 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 19:16:33 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Fri Jul 31 17:49:38 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 31 17:49:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 30 20:57:30 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 20:57:32 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Jul 23 10:44:44 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 23 10:44:44 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 21 20:34:31 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 20:35:24 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Jul 01 10:17:21 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 10:17:21 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=288064