I did not get to read and review this before the archive date. I have a disabled child and she was going through a rough patch at this time.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read and review this book. This is a great handbook about the writing and reading of poetry. It is very accessible and I recommend it for everyone, whether or not you are new to poetry. "How does poetry work? What should readers notice and look out for? Poet Lucy Newlyn demystifies the principles of the form, effortlessly illustrating key approaches and terms—all through her own original verse. Each poem exemplifies an aspect of poetic craft—but read together they suggest how poetry can evoke a whole community and its way of life in myriad ways."

The Craft of Poetry is an accessible and interesting manual for learning about the art of poetry. Each poem illustrates a particular poetic foundation, figure, technique, form or concept, which I found to be very helpful. I will now be able to take much more out of the poems I read - from Edgar Allen Poe to more modern poets such as Rupi Kaur - this manual sets you up well.

I would recommend this book to anyone.

Thank you to Netgalley.

I teach poetry, and am always looking for resources. This is a collection of poems set in the author's childhood, all of which illustrate the various concepts and technical terms related to poetry. So there is a page for simile,
metaphor, synecdoche, metonymy, symbol, etc.

The author writes in the foreword:
"The Craft of Poetry sets out to build a bridge between academic and practical methods of instruction, using my own verse (freshly written for the purpose) to introduce and exemplify key poetic figures, techniques, forms and concepts. The book is simultaneously a collection of poems about a remembered place and a handbook guiding the reader in the art of writing/reading poetry. My aim has been to bypass the difficulties that readers oft en experience with technical terminology, which can seem dry and unappealing."

Having read the book, I would have rather have had most of this list of terms, but explained and illustrated by more well-known poems that you could encourage the students to memorize. Not scaffolding these terms leaves all the burden on the instructor.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Yale University Press for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of The Craft of Poetry. Taking "variations on a theme" to another level, Newlyn has crafted an inventive and easy to read guide to the ins and outs of poetry, with its different forms, principles, and approaches. Although the book shines in its instructional aspect, the poetry itself is enjoyable to read as well.

* I thank netgalley for reading the volume in change an honest review.*

A small volume of poems inspired by metrics and poetry itself. It must be original to know that the idea may appear but in the long run it bores and makes everything even heavy. So the original thing remains only the author's idea of ​​presenting a volume in poetry, on poetry.
Reading is fast certainly given the brevity of the work but I did not find it exciting.
I believe that people who are looking for originality in a book of poetry or a purely niche book can love this volume.

A BIG THANK YOU to Yale University Press and NetGalley for the ARC of The Craft of Poetry: A Primer in Verse by Lucy Newlyn, published on April 20, 2021. Expansive in scope and powerfully evocative in style, this primer in poetry delivers on its promises. Poetry is polarizing. A dozen readers could read the same poem and take away something different. Some poetry is abstruse and the guides designed to decipher it equally so. Newlyn addresses this problem with the simple solution of showing rather than telling. Through her poems, the reader is free to explore the mechanisms of poetry—directly engaging with the text.

This will be an excellent resource for students, poetry lovers, and even those still on the fence about poetry and searching for direction. Newlyn is the perfect guide for this purpose. I received an advanced e-copy of this book but would request a hard copy should one become available, as I will surely return to this text and find something new with each reading. ★★★★★

From the publisher: A wonderfully accessible handbook to the art of writing and reading poetry—itself written entirely in verse. How does poetry work? What should readers notice and look out for? Poet Lucy Newlyn demystifies the principles of the form, effortlessly illustrating key approaches and terms—all through her own original verse. Each poem exemplifies an aspect of poetic craft—but read together they suggest how poetry can evoke a whole community and its way of life in myriad ways.

In a series of beautiful meditations, Newlyn guides the reader through key aspects of poetry, from sonnets and haiku to volta and synecdoche. Avoiding glosses and notes, her poems are allowed to speak for themselves, and show that there are no limits to what poetry can communicate. Newlyn’s timeless verse will appeal to lovers of poetry as well as to practitioners, teachers, and students of all ages.

Onomatopoeia

You’d play here all day if you had your way—
near the stepping-stones, in the clearest
of rock-pools, where water slaps and slips;
where minnows dart, and a baby trout flop-flips.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

5 of 5 Stars
Pub Date 20 April 2021
#TheCraftofPoetry #NetGalley

This book is unbelievably awesome! I love this book so much and have used it so many times. Poetry defined by the style of poetry is genius. I will be giving this book as a gift to all the word lovers I know. I think they will treasure it as much as I do.

Thank you Yale University Press and #NetGalley for a copy of The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn in exchange for my honest review.

I was drawn to The Craft of Poetry because of it's gorgeous cover art and fantastic introduction. Lucy Newlyn clearly articulates the difficulty many non-academics have with understanding the various devices available when writing a poem. In The Craft of Poetry Newlyn decided to "build a bridge between academic and practical methods of instruction", by writing a book of poems to demonstrate different poetic devices. So we have poems as an example of Rhythm, Rhyme, Allegory, Bathos, Elegy, Epitaph and a host of other poetic tools that many people have heard of but would struggle to define or use in their own poetry.

Unfortunately, the rest of Newlyn's book doesn't live up to the intro. For a start, we only have the device in question (e.g. simile) and a poem. No further explanation, nothing about how to build a simile, when to use it or how to identify it in Newlyn’s own poem. Which wouldn't be a problem, if the reader hadn't just read an introduction that specifically called out the lack of practical instruction available to new poets and promising to offer a solution to the problem.

Demonstrating different poetic devices via poems sounds great, but without any context the reader either has to constantly step out of the book and onto Google (disrupting the rhythm of the collection and making for a very disjointed reading experience) or constantly feel a frustrating sense of "not-quite-getting-it". Which is exactly what Newlyn proposed to tackle.

The Craft of Poetry is an ingenious and mesmerising book. I loved it from beginning to end and feel as though I know the beck and surrounding scenery in all manner of sensory ways. The book itself is so clever, teaching you about poetry by using poetry to deliver the lessons. All the verse is based in and around the beck close to the author's childhood home, a beautiful Hamlet called Appersett in the Yorkshire Dales. The poems are wonderful on their own but the fact that they are also teaching a different aspect or type of poem makes them genius. I have learnt more and can actually remember different types of poetic form more clearly with better understanding than ever before. More importantly it has been a joy to learn rather than a chore. This book would be brilliant for use in schools, instead of or in addition to the usual boring text books. A brilliant book. I f I was rating in on the poetry alone I would say excellent but the pure brilliance of the combined poetry lessons made it total genius.

Insightful and inspiring! This book inspired me to start writing poetry again after months of not touching it! Highly recommend for any aspiring poets-but also anyone interested in learning more about the craft!

I love the idea: showing the different poetry and language concepts, techniques and tools by presenting example poems specifically written to show those things. The execution was a bit lacking, however: there were ONLY the poems, no definitions or short explanations of the terms themselves, so the reader is left trying to figure out exactly what to get out of the poems.

This is such an innovative book- a book of poems that teaches you about poetry as you read it. If you enjoy poetry at all, reading it, writing it, or both, you'll love this book. Taken on its own, it's a very enjoyable book of poems connected to each other by a central theme- the pastoral landscape of the author's childhood years in Appersett, a hamlet near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales in England, primarily centered on the nearby beck, or stream. The poems are lovely and evocative, and you'll feel like you know the place by the time you've finished the book. If all this book was was a poetry collection, I'd still give it five stars.
This isn't just a collection of poetry, however; each poem is an example of a specific aspect of poetry, including terms, i.e. allusion, metaphor, couplet, etc.; forms, i.e. haiku and other Japanese poetry forms, free verse, elegy, etc.; and more. So if, for example, you read the poem titled "Allegory," it will be written as an allegory. This method makes learning about these aspects much more clear and interesting, and much more likely to stick in your brain. Newlyn doesn't use glosses or notes, because her aim is to show rather than tell, but if you need help, Google is readily available. I came away from this with a better understanding and appreciation of poetry, and you will too. A gem of a book!

#TheCraftofPoetry #NetGalley

Sorry I didn't get to read it before the time ran out. I didnt know you couldnt renew once archived. I was looking forward to reading it aswell. I slso didn't know books archieved then.

This book was such a delight to read. I don't read poetry often and even though I am always curious to try stuff that catch my interest sometimes I feel I don't give it enough credit or can't appreciate it fully. Reading something like this definitely made me understand poetry and honestly read it better. Would totally recommend for people that are trying to get into poetry and are also curious about the craft.

An interesting primer. I passed along the title to our head of English department for potential inclusion in our introduction to poetry and poetry level two classes.

First of all, I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an eARC of The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn.

Unfortunately, this book was archived before I had the opportunity to read it.

I really loved this, so much so that I bought a personal copy before I even finished it. Definitely essential for larger writing and poetry collections.

The Craft of Poetry by Lucy Newlyn is a creative reimagining to help learn and explore the poetic forms and devices. It walks its talk you might say, instead of explaining at length what each poetic term means, Newlyn wrote a poem playing with each of the terms and demonstrating how to execute them effectively.

I found them most helpful when I already knew what the term meant and was able to pick out how she used it. While clearer definitions would have been helpful to me, the lack thereof was a stylistic choice on the author's part and Newlyn often intertwined the meaning of the device between the mountains and rivers. And while sometimes vague, it was often effectively and ingeniously done. For example, one of my favourites of the poems titled, "Zeugma,"

"You can switch quickly from side to side by letting verbs slide, changing their function.
The milk churn sits on the milk-stand and easy in your mind.
The beck carries meaning and broken twigs from trees that sway above them in the wind.
The current floats an idea and brown drifting leaves which swirl about, driven by the power of water.
You catch John’s drift and a bad cold from listening to him too long, standing on the bridge, smoking at night in winter."


There were many terms, like Prosopopoeia, Catachresis, Bathos and Sestina that I had never come across before, that piqued my interest and that I'm excited to put some of them to use in my own poetry. While I don't prefer poetry about nature and scenery and would have enjoyed more variation in the topic, the poems served their purpose and often, beautifully so. I'm definitely going to be referring to this book in the future.

I've read several Poetry Craft books now. I thought this one was intriguing. Throughout the author uses the poetic devices/forms titling each section. For someone unfamiliar with the forms and devices it might be good to keep Google on hand as the author does not always give a definition. I loved the way she played with the setting and kept the entire book set near the same beck with a bridge.