The Book of Forms
A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and Invented Forms, Revised and Expanded Edition
9781611680355
Distributed for Dartmouth College Press
The Book of Forms
A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and Invented Forms, Revised and Expanded Edition
For decades Lewis Turco’s The Book of Forms has been standard in the libraries of writers, teachers, scholars, and others who care about the craft of poetry. Now Turco has expanded and updated “the poet’s bible” once again, this time incorporating a collection of “odd and invented forms,” which adds many interesting ancient and modern prosodies and forms with new examples written by contemporary poets old and young. Turco presents “The Rules of Scansion,” discusses the “levels” of poetry—the typographical, the sonic, the sensory, and the ideational—and proffers the ever-useful “Form-Finder Index.”
Table of Contents
Preface to the Revised and Expanded Edition • THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY • Introduction to the Discipline • Modes of Writing • The Levels of Poetry • Prosody • The Levels of Poetry • The Typographical Level • The Sonic Level • Prose Poetry • Isoverbal Prosody • Syllabic Prosody • Accentual Prosody • The Rules of Scansion in English • Accentual-Syllabic Prosody • The Sensory Level • The Ideational Level • Glossary of Poetic Terms • Prosodies • Typographical • Grammatical • Syllabic • Accentual • Dipodic • Accentual-Syllabic • Invented • FORM-FINDER INDEX • Introduction to the Index • Specific Forms • General Forms • Notation • TRADITIONAL AND RECENTLY INVENTED VERSE FORMS • Dramatic Poetry • Lyric Poetry • Narrative Poetry • APPENDIX: A Chronology of Postmodern Books Concerning Verse Forms • Bibliography • Publication Credits • Author and Title Index • General Index