York Handbooks - ENGLISH POETRY

English Poetry has two main aims as a Handbook. The first is to described and explain the technical aspects of poetry - all those daunting features in poetry's armoury from metre, form, theme and imagery to the iamb, caesura, ictus and heptameter. The second is to show how these features have earned their place in the making of poetry and the way in which different eras have applied fresh techniques to achieve the effect desired. Thus the effectiveness of poetic expression is shown to be closely linked to the appropriateness of the techniques employed, and in this way the author hopes the reader will gain not only a better understanding of the value of poetic techniques, but also a better feel for poetry as a whole.