All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing: An Explanation of Meter and Versification

by Timothy Steele

Perfect for the general reader of poetry, students and teachers of literature, and aspiring poets, All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing is a lively and comprehensive study of versification by one of our best contemporary practitioners of traditional poetic forms. Emphasizing both the coherence and the diversity of English metrical practice from Chaucer’s time to ours, Timothy Steele explains how poets harmonize the fixed units of meter with the variable flow of idiomatic speech. He examines the ways in which poets have used meter, rhyme, and stanza to communicate and enhance meaning. Steele illuminates as well many practical, theoretical, and historical issues in English prosody, without ever losing sight of the fundamental pleasures, beauties, and insights that fine poems offer us. Written lucidly, with a generous selection of helpful scansions and explanations of the metrical effects of the great poets of the English language, All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing is not only a valuable handbook on technique; it is also a wide-ranging study of English verse and a mine of entertaining information for anyone wishing more fully to write, enjoy, understand, or teach poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction, Criticism, Literary Criticism, Reference, Language

384 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 1999

Reviews

[Šári · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book on the formal properties of English verse. All the explanations are clear and the author includes concrete analyses of examples of EVERYTHING he describes.

[Roy McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m sure you’ve heard about the iron claw?
The strange misfortune out near Salisaw
The po-lice there might like to put the boot
On cars that wait too long and resolute

[Pedro Cava · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book by far I've read on meter and versification. And I've read quite a few on the subject.

[Swell Versed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I encountered this book as part of my study of poetic rhythm. I agree with other online reviews of this book, in terms of the bias noted towards metrical poetry (since the author is a metrical poet). Still, my favorite parts of this book include = (1) the funny title, (2) the brief sections on the impact of monosyllabic vs. multisyllabic words on rhythm, (3) the glossary, and (4) the coverage of rhyme (including its rich history in English poetry and different types).

[Ludmila · Rating 4 out of 5]

I certainly wanted to be more begrudging in the number of stars I gave it because of its laborious technicality at times but it is a worthwhile book for a serious poet to read. He seems so annoyingly interested in dull details. But what you don’t understand at first will become clear the more you practice poetry. And the glossary I could see being immensely valuable.

[Patrick Kennedy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great guide to prosody. The author’s grasp of the subject is profound.

[Doni · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know those conversations where you meet someone who is geeking out about the same thing you geek out about? And at first, it's really exciting. And then as the conversation progresses, you realize the person WAY outgeeks you. And it becomes overwhelming. That is this book. If you want to read into something that goes way into depth about meter, this is your book. I couldn't help feeling though, as I read this book, that the author is like a movie critic: someone who can rip about movies to shreds, but could never make a movie of his own. Do poets really craft with this much attention to each syllable? Maybe they used to. I feel like most successful poets nowadays do not play by the rules Steele lays out, Billy Collins being one of them.

[Jed · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book I've returned to and read a second time just for the pleasure of it. Steele presents just about everything you can imagine on how meter works in (mostly) English-language poetry. It's filled with examples, many of them a single line taken from a poem, that illustrate what he's explaining. Sometimes he prints a longer poem (or a longer extract) so you can see how meter works over a longer stretch.

The book may be too difficult for certain readers. It would probably be suitable as a college textbook on meter. I didn't find it hard to read or understand, but I studied literature in college. After a short while, words like iambs and trochee were like old friends. I suspect that any adult with curiosity about meter and versification would find it accessible with just a little bit of effort.

Steele's book will almost certainly increase your understanding of why great poetry is called that. And with that understanding, in my experience anyway, comes greater enjoyment of both literature and language.

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the greatest book on metrics. Steele seemed rather prone to go off into rabbit trails, and often used ten pages when only one was necessary. As an example of this, Steele dedicated a whole chapter to the concept of elision, where he basically spent the whole chapter showing how different poets used this technique in their writing. I suppose from a historical standpoint, this is interesting if you really like the poets, but it didn't teach me anything about elision that I couldn't have just learned from one or two pages of summary. And that's pretty much the problem that I had with most of this book. It used more examples and more pages than necessary to explain its different concepts. For those looking for an explanation for metrics, Alfred Corn's The Poem's Heartbeat is a more concise (and in my opinion better) look at this topic than this book was. As a result, I didn't gain much from this book that I hadn't already gained from Corn's book, and this one merely took up more pages.

Rating: 2 Stars (Rambling).

[Tandava Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was glad I'd already read The Ode Less Travelled so I had a bit of a grounding in the world of iambs and trochees and anapests and all that, or some of the basics here probably would have gone by too fast for me. After that, though, it was interesting to really dig into a much deeper look at things. Though most of the book is about meter (vs. other aspects of poetry) and most of that is about iambic pentameter, I still felt like it was reasonably well-rounded. Bits would occasionally go on rather longer than seemed necessary, but not too bad overall.

[Calvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wonderful. As someone who loves writing and reading metered, rhymed verse, I find it a worthy explanation of concepts and principles that already seem to sing in my blood. This is not to say I found the reading unnecessary or unenlightening: quite the opposite! Mr. Steele has a wealth of example and principle to explain, and it is so, so good to read all of it. Poetry without meter or rhyme is significant and impactful - its beauty is sublime, in fact. But "All the Fun's in How You Say a Thing" gives meter and modulation and good, clever rhyme their due.

[Steven Withrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rereading this one for renewed instruction. If I'd only read this book as a freshman in college, it would have saved me years of confusion about the inner workings of verse and prose poems. And I likely would have written more effective poems, both metered and unmetered. I also love Steele's Missing Meaures: Modern Poetry and the Revolt Against Meter, though it's a weighty one.

My favorite essay by Steele can be found here:
http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/...

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is probably the best of all the introductory books on meter, versification, scansion, and whatnot. It is complete, engaging, as entertaining as a book like this can be, and, best of all, focused and exhaustive.

[Andrea · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating is subject to questioning since I didn't get very far before I had to return it to the library.

[Brandon · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully thorough introduction to English meter. After reading it, I feel like I can actually "get" poetry.

[Kirsten Kinnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best introduction to meter I have read.

[Arlene S · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title and subtitle perfectly sums up the book. (Subtitle: An explanation of meter and versification) Author is a proponent of rhyming poetry.

[Katharine Holden · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting, but not the helpful instruction I was hoping for.

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly excellent. Cogent, exhaustive treatment of versification with a nearly tiresome array of examples from English poetry.

[B.J. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book for versifyers.Get all your meter questions answered here.

[Ralph Rosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never read a better account of how meter works in verse.