Wednesday, March 27, 2013

The publisher and I are still wrestling over the details of the new book I'm contracted to write for Autumn House Press--and I mean wrestling in the nicest possible way, though worries keep dogging me. Am I the person who ought to be writing this book? Do I even have the stamina? I know that everything will work out, but I'm feeling anxious.

Here's the general structural plan we've hammered out thus far, and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on the matter.

Part 1, titled something along the lines of "Watching a Poet Make a Poem," will contain eight chapters, each of which discusses a specific poem in terms of a question (i.e., "What's the Most Important Sentence?"), suggests a writing activity, and includes five other poems for further study.

Part 2, titled something along the lines of "Talking with a Poet and a Poem," moves the reader toward ways of creating her own personal reader-response to poetry. It will include two chapters, each of which reprints a large, complex work (something from Blake maybe, something from Milton maybe) and a response essay. The third chapter will reprint yet another largish piece and then offers suggestions for ways in which a reader might approach her own response essay to the piece.

My thought here is that students and teachers of poetry need to do both: they need to write poems and they need to write about poems. What do you think?

P.S. I should add that I've decided to mix old and new poems throughout the book, thanks to your suggestions. I think it makes to sense to demonstrate a continuity of conversation, as you were arguing.

2 comments:

Carlene said...

I am thrilled that you are going to model/engage the reader in the craft of writing about poems. This is one thing that all students struggle with; I'm not even always completely clear what I want to be saying about a poem, as well, or how much to say, or what is important to talk about.

That would be fantastic.
*my two cents*

Maureen said...

Learning to write about a poem can be a wonderful entry into deeper understanding.

It might be interesting, if possible, to show how different people read and write about the same poem in different ways, if only to emphasize that interpretation is not limited to a single insight or perspective on what the poet is saying.