Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading and Writing PoetryFrom one of the most esteemed American poets of the twenty-first century comes a celebration of poetry and an invitation for anyone to experience its beauty and wonder. Full of fresh and exciting insights, Making Your Own Days illuminates the somewhat mysterious subject of poetry for those who read it and for those who write it—as well as for those who would like to read and write it better. By treating poetry not as a special use of language but as a distinct language—unlike the one used in prose and conversation—Koch clarifies the nature of poetic inspiration, how poems are written and revised, and what happens to the heart and mind while reading a poem. Koch also provides a rich anthology of more than ninety works from poets past and present. Lyric poems, excerpts from long poems and poetic plays, poems in English, and poems in translation from Homer and Sappho to Lorca, Snyder, and Ashbery; each selection is accompanied by an explanatory note designed to complement and clarify the text and to put pleasure back into the experience of poetry. |
From inside the book
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Page 59
... Talking to God is a special case of apostrophe , since it is based on a public tradition and on a private conviction that God actually exists , can hear , and can respond . Poets may believe they are talk- ing to Time or to Death in the ...
... Talking to God is a special case of apostrophe , since it is based on a public tradition and on a private conviction that God actually exists , can hear , and can respond . Poets may believe they are talk- ing to Time or to Death in the ...
Page 61
... talking to his nose : Oh strong - ridged and deeply hollowed nose of mine ! what will you not be smelling ? ( " Smell ! " ) in Pound's talking to his " songs " ( his poems ) and to Whitman himself ; in Stevens's " To the Roaring Wind ...
... talking to his nose : Oh strong - ridged and deeply hollowed nose of mine ! what will you not be smelling ? ( " Smell ! " ) in Pound's talking to his " songs " ( his poems ) and to Whitman himself ; in Stevens's " To the Roaring Wind ...
Page 297
... Talking to the Sun at Fire Island The Sun woke me this morning loud and clear , saying " Hey ! I've been trying to wake you up for fifteen minutes . Don't be so rude , you are only the second poet I've ever chosen to speak to personally ...
... Talking to the Sun at Fire Island The Sun woke me this morning loud and clear , saying " Hey ! I've been trying to wake you up for fifteen minutes . Don't be so rude , you are only the second poet I've ever chosen to speak to personally ...
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anthology apostrophe Auden beauty bird Black Mountain blackbird blank verse blue comparisons Copyright D. H. Lawrence dawn death dream earth Elegy emotional everything example excitement experience eyes EZRA POUND feel flower Frank O'Hara give hear heart iambic iambic pentameter idea inspiration James Schuyler John Ashbery Juliet Keats Kenneth Koch kind language of poetry Li Bai lines live long poems look lovers Mayakovsky meaning meter Mina Loy moon never night non-metrical ordinary personification plays pleasure poet poet's poetic poetry language prose reader Reprinted by permission rhyme rhythm Rilke Romeo seems sensations sense Shakespeare Shelley sleep song sonnet sound speak stanza sweet syllables T. S. Eliot talking thee things thou thought translation W. H. Auden walk Wallace Stevens Whitman William Carlos Williams Williams wind woman words Wordsworth writing poetry wrote Yeats Yeats's