A Poetry Handbook by Mary Oliver

Co-owner/Editor Peggy Turnbull shares:

A Poetry Handbook: A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry by Mary Oliver

Who can resist a manual about writing poetry written by the great Mary Oliver? Not me, so I read it and now recommend it to you. Written for beginning poets or any poet who wants to spend time with her, Oliver introduces the elements of poetry with chapters on imitation, sound, the line, formal and free verse, voice, and imagery.

It’s a short book: 130 pages including an index, but full of instructive concepts and explanations of poetic terms such as alliteration, turning the line, enjambment; in other words, it teaches you the common language that poets share.

Most interesting to me were the final two chapters on revision and the poetry life. I was not surprised to learn that Oliver’s well-loved poems go through at least forty drafts. And that poetry needs deep, serious solitude; it’s not a social act even when one is working in a collaborative form.

There are no writing exercises here, but within the book is plenty of solid information that every poet must know or else fail to grow into this wonderful art.

(Note: This review is an expansion of one I originally wrote in 2023 for GoodReads.)