Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry (Perrine's Sound & Sense: An Introduction to Poetry)

I ordered this for my class. They gave me the instructor's edition instead of the normal book. Not much of a complaint, it was just obnoxious. They didn't even have the answers in the teacher's edition.

👍🏼👍🏼 good

Cool poems included

fine

One of the two best textbooks on the "close reading" of poetry. The first fourteen chapters are loaded with examples (complete poems) followed by helpful questions for studying the feature highlighted by that chapter (e.g., figurative language, rhythm & metre, tone), prefaced with a brief explanation of the topic, which is always anchored to a particuar poem. Chapters 15-16 (on evaluating a poem's worth) are not as helpful, and reveal the author's taste rather than offer useful insights. Part Two, "Writing About Poetry" should be read by every literature major (whether studying English or the literature of any other language). Part Three is an anthology of poems from a wide variety of poets, with enough examples from a few (e.g., Dickinson, Frost, Shakespeare) to allow an high school or undergraduate student to write a responsible essay on that poet's work.Reflecting its popularity, the price is outrageous, and is my reason for giving it 4 rather than 5 stars. My advice: buy an earlier edition--it will be just as helpful; the main difference will be the selection of poems (and the price). I have used this book and intend to use it again, but I also intend to scrounge up copies of an older edition, average the cost, and sell them to the students at cost (plus s/h).

A standard New Critical introduction to poetry, more than 50 years old. Buy an earlier, out of print edition, which contains all the relevant features and information.