Links for Research

This page contains a set of links to sites and resources which will help expand your knowledge of poetry and writing in general.

The links are sectioned into categories - Essentials, Basics, Poets, Books, Workshops and Copyright

Essentials

  • Bob's Byway - A glossary of Poetic Terms
    What is meter? Slant rhyme? A sonnet? A villanelle? Iambic pentameter? A dactyl? Enjambment? Find the answer in this indispensible glossary.
  • Dictionary.Com
    Simple, but effective, for quick lo ok-ups. You'll have your own favourite for more authoritative answers.
  • Encyclopedia Britannica
    Useful for searching for well-known poets, forms, and general research.
  • Representative Poetry Online
    Excellent browsing resource to get an overview of the English-speaking canon in historical context, with many texts.
  • Peter Howard's Poetry Links
    Makes it into 'essentials' by being one of the most comprehensive collections of links on the web. These pages are well-organized and frequently updated, and offer a fantastic links resource.
  • UK-Specific Resources
    Just-started - a list of links to explain the contemporary UK poetry scene.

Basics & Writing Guides

  • The Virtual Classroom
    The basics of literary criticism (practical criticism), with glosses and examples.
  • Form & Meter
    Some useful information about the basics of form and meter.
  • Sonnets
    An extensive collection of sonnet-related information and examples
  • GrammarBook
    Useful information on the fundamentals of grammar. punctuation and spelling. Includes self-tests.
  • POWA Editing and POWA Revising
    Two links which may be useful to those looking to improve their general writing skills. Although the sites deal primarily with essay writing, there are good tips on topics such as word choice/tightening a work.
  • Effective Writer
    Learn how to avoid poor style in your posts, and...er... how to spell like a Canadian.
  • Online Writing Guide
    Content-rich site about good writing. Intended as a guide for the writing of effective uni work, it is well worth a trawl through for some excellent information.

Poets

Based around a list of poets favoured by AAPC participants, the following links give quick information and jumping-off points for recommended poets and their work.

How-To Books

Clicking on the main link should take you to the relevant Amazon.Com page. The [UK] link will take you to the .co.uk equivalent.

  • Sound and Sense - Lawrence Perrine & Thomas R. Arp
    [UK]
  • The New Book of Forms - Lewis Turco
    [UK]
  • A Poet's Guide to Poetry - Mary Kinzie
    both discussion of technique and practical exercises
    [UK]
  • The Art and Craft of Poetry - Michael Bugeja
    Writer's Digest Books -- this is mostly exercises
  • In the Palm of Your Hand - Steve Kowit
    [UK]
  • The Teacher's & Writer's Handbook of Poetic Forms - ed. by Ron Padgett
  • The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics - ed. Preminger and Brogan
    [UK]
  • Patterns of Poetry - Miller Williams
    excellent guide to all the verse forms you ever heard of, and many you haven't (MikeB)
    [UK]
  • Rules for the Dance & A Poetry Handbook - both by Mary Oliver
    The first covers formal, metrical poetry while the second covers the more general aspects of poetry like imagery, voice, tone, etc. Both are very good. (MikeB)
    [UK1] . [UK2]
  • The Triggering Town - Richard Hugo
    not real technical in its approach, but one of the funnest reads there is. Hugo's advice in this book has stuck with me longer and deeper than any I've gotten from any other book. That's why I quote from that book all the time. (MikeB)
    [UK]
  • Sound and Form in Modern Poetry - by Harvey Gross and Robert McDowell
    this is more of an analysis of the techniques and styles of various poets and movements in modern poetry. It provides examples and explanations of many of the big names in twentieth century (and even late nineteenth century) poetry (MikeB )
    [UK]
  • Rhymes Reason - by John Hollander
    a great little guide to verse forms. Each has a description of the form written in the form itself. Clever, very clever! (MikeB)
  • Sounds of Poetry - Robert Pinsky
    In order to write good poems you have to be a good reader of poetry (you used in the colloquial sense here). This book addresses the reading of poems. I love this book. Best line in the whole book: "There are no rules."(MikeB)
    [UK]
  • The Poem's Heartbeat - Alfred Corn
    A complete, well written guide to prosody. If it concerns meter, it's in this book (MikeB)
    [UK]
  • Missing Measures - Timothy Steele
    a scholarly text more than anything. Where did meter come from and where did it go? And why did it go? Steele provides a history of meter that starts deep, deep in ancient Greece and winds its way through to the modernist movement that abandoned it. You won't learn much in practical terms from this book, but it is a lovely green. I found the information fascinating.(MikeB)
    [UK]
  • Poetic Designs : an introduction to meters, verse forms, and figures of speech - Stephen Adams
    [UK]

Workshops

When you need an alternative to AAPC - some other places where poetry can be posted for comment.

  • Poetry Mentors
    A matching service for those looking for mentors, students and peers, now moved to the Gazebo. Click on the link, and scroll down to Mentoring Board.
  • The Gazebo
    You can often get very high levels of critique here, though newcomers are often ignored. Can be extremely harsh.
  • Poetry Free For All
    Bela Selendy's site. A very busy, free wheeling group that suffers a bit from high traffic. Backtalk to critics will land you in poetic jail.
    Can be extremely harsh in the higher critique forums, but you can choose gentler forums.
  • The Sonnet Board
    Very good site for sonnet reading and critiquing. Generally gentle to newcomers.
  • Eratosphere
    Main focus is metrical poetry, though there is a second board for free verse. The metrical forum is excellent. The free verse forum is mediocre, at best. Generally gentle.
  • Web Del Sol
    Mixed bag
  • Poets in Tents
    Slightly less traffic than some of the above forums (pffa, for example), which can be an advantage if you want to work your way into a workshop environment. Broadly gentle and supportive.

Copyright Issues