The Body of Poetry: Essays on Women, Form, and the Poetic Self

Poets on Poetry

by Annie Finch

The Body of Poetry collects essays, reviews, and memoir by Annie Finch, one of the brightest poet-critics of her generation. Finch's germinal work on the art of verse has earned her the admiration of a wide range of poets, from new formalists to hip-hop writers. And her ongoing commitment to women's poetry has brought Finch a substantial following as a "postmodern poetess" whose critical writing embraces the past while establishing bold new traditions. The Body of Poetry includes essays on metrical diversity, poetry and music, the place of women poets in the canon, and on poets Emily Dickinson, Phillis Wheatley, Sara Teasdale, Audre Lorde, Marilyn Hacker, and John Peck, among other topics. In Annie Finch's own words, these essays were all written with one "to build a safe space for my own poetry. . . . [I]n the attempt, they will also have helped to nourish a new kind of American poetics, one that will prove increasingly open to poetry's heart."
Poet, translator, and critic Annie Finch is director of the Stonecoast low-residency MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. She is co-editor, with Kathrine Varnes, of An Exaltation of Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art , and author of The Ghost of Culture and Prosody in American Free Verse , Eve , and Calendars . She is the winner of the eleventh annual Robert Fitzgerald Prosody Award for scholars who have made a lasting contribution to the art and science of versification.

Genres: Poetry

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 31, 2005

About the author

Annie Finch is the author of six books of poetry, including Spells: New and Selected Poems, The Poetry Witch Little Book of Spells, Calendars and Eve (both finalists for the National Poetry Series), and the verse play Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams (Sarasvati Award, 2012). Her poems have appeared onstage at Carnegie Hall and in The Penguin Book of Twentieth-Century American Poetry. Her other works include poetry translation, poetics, poetry anthologies, and a poetry textbook. She is also the editor of Choice Words: Writers on Abortion (Haymarket Books, 2020). Annie Finch holds a Ph.D from Stanford, served for a decade as Director of the Stonecoast MFA Program in Creative Writing, and has lectured on poetry at Berkeley, Toronto, Harvard, and Oxford. In 2010 she was awarded the Robert Fitzgerald Award for her lifetime contribution to the art and craft of Versification. Finch has collaborated on poetic ritual theater productions with artists in theater, dance, and music and has performed as Poetry Witch on three continents. She teaches poetry and magic at PoetryWitchCommunity.org. 

“My poems harness the magically diverse and deeply rooted craft of poetic rhythms and forms. Like spells, they enjoy being spoken aloud three times." —Annie Finch

Annie on Twitter @poetrywitch
Annie on Instagram @thepoetrywitch

Annie connects with readers and facilitates seasonal rituals and classes in poetry and meter in her online community,
PoetryWitchCommunity.org, open to all who identify as women or gender-nonconforming.

Want more info? Updates, videos, poems, spells, spellsletter signup, and more at anniefinch.net

Blessings to all my beautiful readers!

Reviews

[Donna Cowan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! I read an excerpt of her essay "How to Create a Poetic Tradition" online and was hooked. This book contains that essay and many more. "The Body of Poetry" has a premise that will fascinate both genders: that "the poem's body has come to be despised by literary culture." Her short essay (or rather, almost a checklist) "Omniformalism: A Manifesto," is something every poet should read (and probably post above his/her desk). In it, she suggests that every poem should have physicality, permeability, structure, kinship, continuity, and mystery, and explains these beautifully.

As Finch is an accomplished poet, this is some of the most beautiful literary criticism you'll ever read.

[Lynnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enormously useful and wise collection of practical criticism that, over the course of the book, suggests a persuasive and well-considered thesis about how the metrical code, sometimes "ghost", inhabits and drives a poem. Her primary examples and explications are from her own and other women's poetry (including a really wonderful essay on Maxine Kumin's "Looking for Luck"), hence the title, but her aesthetic generally sets the definition of most free verse poetry in relief in clarifying ways.

I do not know Finch's poetry, but am encouraged to seek it out.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book that explores neglected avenues our poetic history as well as the subject of prosody, which I don't think I really understood until I read this book. Finch approaches her subjects with genuine intellectual curiosity and an open mind--two characteristics often absent in contemporary criticism.

[Alison Hedlund · Rating 5 out of 5]

A seminal book on poetics, essential to contemporary poets.