You, too, could write a poem

No cover — David Orr: You, too, could write a poem (2017, Penguin Books)

384 pages

English language

Published Dec. 30, 2017 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-312819-9
OCLC Number:: 950444019

(2 reviews)

"A collection of reviews and essays by David Orr, the New York Times poetry columnist and one of the most respected critics in America today, his best work of the past fifteen years in one place. Poetry is never more vital, meaningful, or accessible than in the hands of David Orr. In the pieces collected here, most of them written originally for the New York Times, Orr is at his rigorous, conversational, and edifying best. Whether he is considering the careers of contemporary masters, such as Louise Gluckor Frederick Seidel, sizing up younger American poets, like Matthea Harvey and Matthew Zapruder, or even turning his attention to celebrities and public figures, namely Oprah Winfrey and Stephen Fry, when they choose to wade into the hotly contested waters of the poetry world, Orr is never any less than fully persuasive in arguing what makes a poem or poet great--or not."--

1 edition

technicat reviewed You, too, could write a poem by David Orr

Makes poetry sound fun

4 stars

Even when I don't particularly like a thing, I may enjoy reading about it. In this case, it's poetry, as entertainingly discussed in this book, covering the politics (poetry politics!), insecurities (is it serious enough?), weighty questions (why aren't there as more poet-novelists?), rising stars, neglected masters (there's actually a prize for that), and the poetry itself. I haven't read much beyond college T.S. Eliot, but maybe it's time to give it another whirl.

DaveNash3 reviewed You, too, could write a poem by David Orr

Review of 'You, too, could write a poem' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

This is exactly what I was looking for. A New York Times level book that wets the appetite for contemporary poetry. Orr is the NYT's poetry columnist and keeps his writing on that level - not too academic for the amateur, but not to dumbed down and it's mostly non-technical language. His pieces are crisp and well written.

I got a lot reading list books from Orr's series of columns or essays that take on contemporary issue in poetry and profile living poets and a few dead ones like Frost and Nabokov.

Is Nabokov a poet? What is poetry? Is it still relevant? Are there any great poets after Frost? Was Frost a traditionalist or experimentalist? Could Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop be joined in poetic matrimony? What does fashion, James Franco, and Oprah have to do with poetry? Name five living poets.

Read this and find out.

Subjects

Poetics
Poetry