A Poetry Handbook

A Poetry Handbook

4.01 of 5 stars 4.01  ·  rating details  ·  1,352 ratings  ·  147 reviews
With passion, wit, and good common sense, the celebrated poet Mary Oliver tells of the basic ways a poem is built-meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense. Drawing on poems from Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, and others, Oliver imparts an extraordinary amount of information in a remarkably short space. “Stunning” (Los Angeles Times). Index.
Paperback, 144 pages
Published August 15th 1994 by Mariner Books
more details... edit details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
A Poetry Handbook by Mary OliverShakespeare's Sonnets by William ShakespeareRobert Frost's Poems by Robert Frost45 Mercy Street by Anne SextonComplete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Poetry 101
1st out of 46 books — 16 voters
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.On Writing by Stephen KingEats, Shoots & Leaves by Lynne TrussGrammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing by Mignon FogartyA Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver
The Art & Business of Writing
4th out of 45 books — 23 voters


More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 2,218)
filter  |  sort: default (?)  |  rating details
Erin Stile
Mary Oliver remains beyond doubt one of the richest souls of poetry in contemporary Western culture, a strongly needed antidote to the rapaciousness and heartlessness of our society. I came to this book curious as to how someone so deeply enmeshed in the poetry of life would discuss the art of poetry-writing. (I hate to say "techniques" or "mechanics," words that so demean what fine poets do--although I grant that "art" itself derives from the same root as "artifice.") The prose is as clear and...more
Maria
Feb 05, 2013 Maria rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mary Oliver fans
Shelves: poetry
I read this book a few times before.
After the inauguration I read an article asking why poetry matters. I couldn't answer that. At first I thought that it offers a channel of written/spoken textured expression for those of us who love words, but don’t want to write a novel or short story. I reopened this book for the answers as it is my go-to book for poetry-foundation answers.
Unfortunately, this is the first time I disagreed with Ms. Oliver. The poem she holds in high regard, “Stopping by Wood...more
Karen
This book is delightful and interesting to read, despite being a type of textbook or "bible" for poetry. I enjoyed Mary Oliver's descriptions and discection of sounds, and how they are used to magnify thoughts and messages within poetry or in any written piece. Her insight into the use of certain letters to convey feelings and/or tone is fascinating, and extremely helpful for the budding writer. Mary Oliver uses the same mechanisms she describes within the book itself, which makes for pleasant r...more
Shauna
Feb 02, 2011 Shauna rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who want to refresh their knowledge of poetry
Recommended to Shauna by: Emily Jiang
This book does exactly what you'd want an introductory book on writing poetry to do: It briefly (120 pages) reviews the basics of poetry, defines many poetry terms, introduces the reader to some popular meters, and uses real poems for examples.

I had learned much of this information decades ago in high school, but had not realized it until I started reading this book and realized I had come across this info before. I found it an excellent refresher for someone who wants to try their hand at poet...more
Enzo
The technical information was a little too basic for me, but it was executed in a refreshingly non-pedantic way. For example, Oliver comes right out and admits that there are no clear-cut rules on how to scan certain lines.

Oliver's insights about writing are very sound to me, she specifically emphasizes exercise and imitation as vital for a beginning poet. However, the book could have gone into a little more detail about pretty much anything it mentions. This way, readers come away from the book...more
Timothy
Mary Oliver is one of the more popular contemporary poets in the United States. Many Americans think she is all the beans and writes beautiful verse. Many Americans also believe in angels and think that Thomas Kinkade was a good painter. Why do these things happen? Because the educational system in America is designed to teach people how to get a job at McFuckers Emporium of Fuckery and the country is thus inhabited by great swathes of nincompoops who lack critical thinking skills.

Dr Seuss knew...more
Richelle Wilson
Feb 18, 2013 Richelle Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: every lover of beautiful
A Poetry Handbook is something I wish I had read a lot earlier in my career as a student of literature, to say nothing of the tentative ventures I’ve made into writing poetry since I was young. A lot of people say this book is a good reiteration of things they learned in their college classes, but I sincerely think it’s an introduction we all need. I never learned about vowel and consonant sounds in my poetry seminars. Maybe somewhere down the line a professor glossed over the principles of scan...more
Bill
What’s a Metric Foot?

Oliver, M. (1994). A poetry Handbook: A prose guide to understanding and writing poetry. New York: Harcourt Books.

I was looking for a quick, simple guide to understanding the rhythms of poetry, something like “Poetry For Dummies,” and there actually is such a book, but what I found in the bookstore instead is this excellent volume by Pulitzer Prize winner and National Book Award winner, Mary Oliver. It does not aim to be historically comprehensive, only a brief introduction...more
Bill Martin
For the Lit. MFA, Mary Oliver's compact handbook may not offer an avalanche of commendable qualities. But for those of us without the luxury of formal training or professional mentoring, those who endeavor to become better readers of poetry as well as novices in the craft, A Poetry Handbook should fit in a welcome spot on our shelves and furnish our minds with a quarry of solid principles, foundation stones to build on.

I read the less-than-150-page text over a weekend. I have the feeling that I...more
Jan Duncan-O'Neal
Feb 16, 2008 Jan Duncan-O'Neal rated it 3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Jan by: poets
Shelves: writing
While Oliver knows her stuff and is respected, I don't find passion in this slim handbook as I do in other books in the genre such as Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manual or Edward Hirsch's How to Read a Poem. The sample poems she includes are not fully explored or mined as I would have hoped.
Heather Williams
This book, along with The Rules of the Dance, gets 5 stars for totally bailing me out as a high school English teacher. I've always liked poetry but had no way to talk about it beyond something like "isn't that great?!" So when I suddenly found myself charged with the awesome responsibility of teaching poets like Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman and countless canonical others, I turned to Mary Oliver to help me sort it all out. She gracefully shows how to use words such as meter, rhyme, voice, d...more
Karsten
Not a ground-breaking book, but a clear, skillful, personable take on, as Oliver puts it, "the part of the poem that is a written document, as opposed to a mystical document, which of course the poem is also."

Oliver handles the usual handbook topics--sound, figures of speech, lines, and so on--and her voice is distinctive, bracing but never strident, like a favorite teacher's...

She is wry and opinionated: A successful writing class is one "where no one feels that 'writer's block' is a high-prior...more
Kit
Mary Oliver is arguably one of the most widely honored poets in the United States and has won many awards for her writing. In her classic guide to understanding and writing poetry, A Poetry Handbook, Oliver discusses literary devises such as sound, diction, tone, voice, etc. She also gives many forms of poetry such as the sonnet, couplet, and tercet, and eventually gives great tips on the revision process and information on writing workshops.

This book I feel is an important foundation for anyone...more
Joe
There are parts of this book I do find useful, and other parts I do not. I agreed with much of what was said about different styles, and the use of poetry. At times I would agree, at others disagree, with her views of how to write. I might even do both at once (particularly in the section on revision). And I disagreed with most of the sections that dealt with learning to write (except for a few things about a workshop and solitude). I would have rated it as 2 instead of 3 stars, because I was lo...more
William Hurst
Mary Oliver is known for her blend of mysticism with Whitman's pastoral fixation. In that vein, this book on the craft of poetry does not disappoint. While other craft books may be more practical (such as the ever-popular The Poet's Companion), A Poetry Handbook probes deeper into the indefinable aspects of verse.

Some will tire of this quickly. Why write a book about the unnameable aspects of the art? Oliver's handbook is necessary because while skilled poets may see the strings of talent, beaut...more
Powells.com
I bought A Poetry Handbook when I entered my first poetry-writing class as an undergrad. My professor was a notorious curmudgeon who didn't spare anyone's feelings and expected each progressive class in the term "to separate the sheep from the goats." I was determined not to be a sheep (or a goat?): I was going to be prepared! This book is amazingly detailed for a basic introduction and extremely useful for reading, writing, and talking about many different kinds of poems. A Poetry Handbook not...more
Sarah
Of course I'm a fan of everything Mary Oliver writes, so she is an excellent writer not only of but also on poetry. Her explanation on why Whitman is but one (oft-cited) example of free verse but is certainly not the last word in this dynamic form is itself a point worth heeding and one worth the the effort of the time it would take you to read this brief little volume. This example in particular showcases her lucidity and exemplary teaching style, which is shown again and again throughout.
Read...more
Jessica
I used this the first two semesters that I taught my Creative Writing class at Old Westbury, but the students didn't connect to it the way I'd hoped. I use Ted Kooser's Poetry Home Repair Manuel now instead. It's more student-friendly.

But I'd still recommend this for the older, more advanced beginning writer. Being a fan of Oliver's poetry doesn't automatically make this book a good read. From what I recall, she doesn't use a lot of her own stuff to illustrate writing techniques here.

So, not t...more
Sarah Cypher
I've said elsewhere that I was frightened of poetry. After having finished writing two novels, I was ready to go back to the basics: language and imagery. I could not have stumbled upon a better book to get my head out of the windy tomes of long-form fiction, and learn that poetry is friendly. While the book treats the craft at a beginner's level that was sometimes skim-inducing, I found it pleasurable to relearn all the old lessons in the light of a new form.

The book is slender, elegant, and h...more
Colleen Wainwright
Concise and useful, which is really everything a handbook should be. And it's really engaging in parts: the section on imagery is especially good, and in context, reading Elizabeth Bishop's "The Fish" brought me to tears, which is just what a good poem one is prepared to read well and properly should do.

But the sections on meter and line and sound had me drifting off. I get that it's foundational stuff, drier than metaphor, and a little hard to make lively on the page: my duty as reader-student...more
Elaine Nelson
I think there are lessons in life that I'm ready to absorb now that I couldn't 10 or 15 years ago. One of them is the role of craft & structure -- the formalities & technicalities -- in poetry. I've owned this book for quite a while, but this read is the first time that it resonated in a useful way.

Not that this book is overly formal, but it touches on scansion, which I've always had trouble with, and some of the other traditional aspects of poetry. It used to be that the stress symbols...more
Brandon
This is the poetry writer's bible. Not only is the content absolutely comprehensive and presented in a simple and beautifully organized manner, but it's written by a true poet. And it shows in her writing. This is a book on poetry written poetically. If you want to learn to write poetry or improve your poetry, pick up this book first, then read others if you feel you need to. But you'll find you keep going back to this one. I sometimes pick this book up just to read something beautiful, to be in...more
Joshua Rivera
Do you love to read poetry but struggle to write your own? This book is your answer. I had to read this for a class and I am glad I did because Mary Oliver does a very good job teaching everything you need to know about poetry. She covers everything- from the sound and diction of a word, length and rhythm, the form (whether free verse or not), and imagery. She even discusses tools to help you when revising your work. Everything about poetry is in this book, definitely a must have for poets.
Mindy
The best little book on poetry I've come across. Oliver is a master of beautiful, unshowy simplicity. This book covers the basics of poetry, including sound, diction, tone, meter, rhyme, and imagery, and it explains in clear terms why each component is important, and says at least a thing or two about how to do it "right" (well?) and "wrong" (poorly?). Oliver incorporates good examples and useful quotations. The book is true pleasure: wise, measured, clear.
Mmars
An essential and short guide for beginning readers and writers of poetry. Although subtitled "a prose guide to understanding and writing poetry" it seems to be more suited to beginning writers. There are much more interesting and thorough guides to understanding and appreciating poetry. But Oliver clearly describes and defines terminology, forms, etc. I'll be going back to this again and again.
Jesse
An excellent resource on poetry writing. Mary Oliver understands the importance of both free verse and meter and rhyme schemes. Meter and rhyme do not guarantee good poetry. And free verse is not free. A very thoughtful and balanced approach to both. "Poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry."
Liz Gray
A gem of a book for anyone who enjoys reading and writing poetry. Oliver talks about the basic ways a poem is built and the intangibles that result in a successful poem and includes many examples. Not surprisingly, it's a poetic book about craft, "for poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry."
Sporkalicious
I used to write poetry when I was little because I wanted to eventually write my own music. I've been getting back into writing again and am hoping eventually to write my own songs.

This is mostly just something that I do for me, I'm not expecting to go anywhere with it. But it's something I feel like I could do now if I started working on it.
Celeste Rousselot


Mary Oliver's succinct handbook is definitely a keeper. As a beginner I acquired a significant poetic vocabulary through her definitions of slant verse, assonance, etc. Also I met several poets by reading their poems and Oliver's discussions of their styles, forms and use of imagery. By identifying appropriate and inappropriate language in her chapter on Diction, Tone and Voice, Oliver turned me in a new direction. Likewise I valued her discussion of "Turning the Line," in the chapter The Line a...more
Laura
An excellent book about the mechanics of poetry - rhyme patterns, meters, stress, word choice, rhythms, and the like. I love poetry and thanks to this book I've learned that I most frequently write in iambic tetrameter with true rhymes. =)

The only chapters that I didn't like were about the modern forms of poetry, but these can be by-passed.
« previous 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 73 74 next »
There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »
23988
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

“Mary Oliver. In a region that has produced most of the nation's poet laureates, it is risky to single out one fragile 71-year-old bard of Provincetown. But Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1983, is my choice for her joyous, accessible, intimate observati...more
More about Mary Oliver...
New and Selected Poems, Vol. 1 American Primitive Thirst Why I Wake Early New and Selected Poems, Vol. 2

Share This Book

Your website
“The poet must not only write the poem but must scrutinize the world intensely, or anyway that part of the world he or she has taken for subject. If the poem is thin, it is likely so not because the poet does not know enough words, but because he or she has not stood long enough among the flowers--has not seen them in any fresh, exciting, and valid way.” 14 people liked it
“The language of the poem is the language of particulars.” 2 people liked it
More quotes…