Lucid, entertaining and full of insight, How To Read A Poem is designed to banish the intimidation that too often attends the subject of poetry, and in doing so to bring it into the personal possession of the students and the general reader.

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• Offers a detailed examination of poetic form and its relation to content.
  
• Takes a wide range of poems from the Renaissance to the present day and submits them to brilliantly illuminating closes analysis.
  
• Discusses the work of major poets, including John Milton, Alexander Pope, John Keats, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, W.B. Yeats, Robert Frost, W.H.Auden, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, and many more.
  
• Includes a helpful glossary of poetic terms.

• Title page 6
• Table of Contents 8
• Preface 10
• Acknowledgements 11
• Chapter 1: The functions of criticism 14
  • 1.1 The end of criticism? 14
  • 1.2 Politics and rhetoric 21
  • 1.3 The death of experience 30
  • 1.4 Imagination 35
• Chapter 2: What is poetry? 38
  • 2.1 Poetry and prose 38
  • 2.2 Poetry and morality 41
  • 2.3 Poetry and fiction 44
  • 2.4 Poetry and pragmatism 51
  • 2.5 Poetic language 54