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Bluffer's Guide to ...
The Bluffer's Guide to Poetry
Become an instant expert on poetry and bluff your way among the most knowledgable of poetry-readers. No studying required, just a sense of humour. From 'Wordsworth' to 'Word Count', and from 'Shakespeare' to 'Edward Lear', 'The Bluffer's Guide to Poetry' contains everything you need to have you waxing lyrical in the most intellectual of company.
128 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 19, 2016
I thought this was terrific. I had the good fortune to be sent a few of these Bluffer's Guides for review by the publisher: they are pocket-sized and only around 100 pages long and I have found them all amusing, informative and very enjoyable. This is one of the best. The Guides are, in fact, a bluff in themselves because although they purport to be a handbook for those who simply want to bluff their way, they use this as a cover for providing lots of very sound fact, written by people who really know and love their subject while being very witty about it and often scathing about the pretence which surrounds it.
This slim volume gives a really good basic guide to English poetry, and also to Scots, Welsh, American and Australian poets writing in English. The authors manage to be extremely witty and often laugh-out-loud funny about bad poetry and about the posing of many poets and "experts" while being interesting, respectful and insightful about some of the best poetry. To give a couple of examples of the style, they say that Fitzgerald begins his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with, "'Awake!...' as though the audience, or possibly the reader, is already asleep. (If you think it's impossible to read poetry and be asleep at the same time, you've either never taught English Literature, or you've been very lucky, or you've never read anything from the eighteenth century.)" A view with which I have a good deal of sympathy. Or, " Most of Byron's poetry is described by experts as 'Byronic', which shows how easy it is to be a poetry expert." On the other hand, they write of Byron himself, and others like Keats and Wilfred Owen with great respect (while still being very readable).
I am a bit of a museum-piece in that I actively read and enjoy poetry, but I still learned a good deal here - like the wonderful poem Beach Burial by the Australian Second World War poet Kenneth Slessor which I didn't know and is quoted in full in the book. (I strongly recommend that you google it if you don't know it - it's fantastic.) I laughed a lot, too, and warmly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in poetry: whether you're a novice wanting some basic facts and quotes (for bluffing or just for interest) or you're a seasoned old hand, there's a lot here to enjoy.
This slim volume gives a really good basic guide to English poetry, and also to Scots, Welsh, American and Australian poets writing in English. The authors manage to be extremely witty and often laugh-out-loud funny about bad poetry and about the posing of many poets and "experts" while being interesting, respectful and insightful about some of the best poetry. To give a couple of examples of the style, they say that Fitzgerald begins his Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam with, "'Awake!...' as though the audience, or possibly the reader, is already asleep. (If you think it's impossible to read poetry and be asleep at the same time, you've either never taught English Literature, or you've been very lucky, or you've never read anything from the eighteenth century.)" A view with which I have a good deal of sympathy. Or, " Most of Byron's poetry is described by experts as 'Byronic', which shows how easy it is to be a poetry expert." On the other hand, they write of Byron himself, and others like Keats and Wilfred Owen with great respect (while still being very readable).
I am a bit of a museum-piece in that I actively read and enjoy poetry, but I still learned a good deal here - like the wonderful poem Beach Burial by the Australian Second World War poet Kenneth Slessor which I didn't know and is quoted in full in the book. (I strongly recommend that you google it if you don't know it - it's fantastic.) I laughed a lot, too, and warmly recommend this book to anyone with any interest in poetry: whether you're a novice wanting some basic facts and quotes (for bluffing or just for interest) or you're a seasoned old hand, there's a lot here to enjoy.
September 3, 2019
Poseur’s delight
This is rather clever in a predictable sort of way. The idea is to lampoon poetry and poetry snobs while giving the reader a bit of learning.
Nick Yapp who wrote the book sometime in the 1980s was a prolific writer of pop culture books (a photographic biography of Marilyn Monroe, decade books, 1960s, 1970s, etc.) and scripts for radio and TV. Richard Meier, who is a poet (and not to be confused with the American architect), edited. The further idea is to sound clever while guiding the neophyte reader to cleverness. Consequently this is a poseur’s book on how to bluff your way through a cocktail party of poets. Or something like that.
These snippets from the chapter entitled “Poetry Basics” will give you a feel for what the book is like.
“HOW TO DRESS FOR POETRY
Don’t:
Wear a velvet smoking jacket or thick cord trousers; people will think you’re a psychotherapist.
Grow a beard.”
“WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE THREATENS YOU WITH A POEM THEY’VE WRITTEN
The vital thing is to prevent them reading it to you...”
Yapp throws in 20 short verses that you can commit to memory and spout at appropriate times. For example:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, John Keats”
“I grow old...I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’, TS Eliot”
(I actually recite the T.S. Eliot line to myself sometimes.)
There’s a bit of a tongue-in-cheek glossary at the end including a couple of terms I never heard of including:
Strophe
A complicated Greek metrical construction that usually went wildly wrong, hence ‘catastrophe’.
Toss in some history, a bit about poets dying young and a word or so on the current state of the art and you’ve got a modestly clever or cleverly modest tome in hand (or, more likely, digital words on a flat screen).
--Dennis Littrell, author of “Like a Tsunami Headed for Hilo: Selected Poems”
This is rather clever in a predictable sort of way. The idea is to lampoon poetry and poetry snobs while giving the reader a bit of learning.
Nick Yapp who wrote the book sometime in the 1980s was a prolific writer of pop culture books (a photographic biography of Marilyn Monroe, decade books, 1960s, 1970s, etc.) and scripts for radio and TV. Richard Meier, who is a poet (and not to be confused with the American architect), edited. The further idea is to sound clever while guiding the neophyte reader to cleverness. Consequently this is a poseur’s book on how to bluff your way through a cocktail party of poets. Or something like that.
These snippets from the chapter entitled “Poetry Basics” will give you a feel for what the book is like.
“HOW TO DRESS FOR POETRY
Don’t:
Wear a velvet smoking jacket or thick cord trousers; people will think you’re a psychotherapist.
Grow a beard.”
“WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE THREATENS YOU WITH A POEM THEY’VE WRITTEN
The vital thing is to prevent them reading it to you...”
Yapp throws in 20 short verses that you can commit to memory and spout at appropriate times. For example:
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
‘Ode on a Grecian Urn’, John Keats”
“I grow old...I grow old...
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
‘The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock’, TS Eliot”
(I actually recite the T.S. Eliot line to myself sometimes.)
There’s a bit of a tongue-in-cheek glossary at the end including a couple of terms I never heard of including:
Strophe
A complicated Greek metrical construction that usually went wildly wrong, hence ‘catastrophe’.
Toss in some history, a bit about poets dying young and a word or so on the current state of the art and you’ve got a modestly clever or cleverly modest tome in hand (or, more likely, digital words on a flat screen).
--Dennis Littrell, author of “Like a Tsunami Headed for Hilo: Selected Poems”
June 1, 2017
It's very much as expected. Good information coupled with some weak jokes all set in the context of needing to bluff in the subject. It's perfectly acceptable.
October 28, 2016
A tongue-in-cheek guide which will separate the trochees from the iambs
This is a lively and knowing introduction to poetry that is funnier the better acquainted you are with both English poetry and the sometimes pretentious way in which it is discussed and written about. Along the way, we are treated to some prime bons mots as well as quite a lot of real poetry.
There are a few errors of accuracy which I wanted to correct (Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Apologie for Poetry are both prose, not poetic, works – and the Apologie is the same as the Defence of Poesy, just a ‘pirated’ edition) but these are few and far between.
I especially enjoyed the scathing hints on how to wriggle out from having a poet actually read you his/her poetry (I work in a department with a large creative writing programme so these tips are gratefully received!).
So, in summary, this would serve well as a tongue-in-cheek introduction for undergraduates faced with one of the many first year poetry modules – or any general reader who enjoys a romp through the landscape of English verse.
This is a lively and knowing introduction to poetry that is funnier the better acquainted you are with both English poetry and the sometimes pretentious way in which it is discussed and written about. Along the way, we are treated to some prime bons mots as well as quite a lot of real poetry.
There are a few errors of accuracy which I wanted to correct (Philip Sidney’s Arcadia and Apologie for Poetry are both prose, not poetic, works – and the Apologie is the same as the Defence of Poesy, just a ‘pirated’ edition) but these are few and far between.
I especially enjoyed the scathing hints on how to wriggle out from having a poet actually read you his/her poetry (I work in a department with a large creative writing programme so these tips are gratefully received!).
So, in summary, this would serve well as a tongue-in-cheek introduction for undergraduates faced with one of the many first year poetry modules – or any general reader who enjoys a romp through the landscape of English verse.
July 4, 2013
Superb introduction
July 26, 2013
Very little book, but not uninteresting. Has ideas, and articulates them.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews