Perrine's Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry

by Thomas R. Arp, Greg Johnson

There is no better way for you to learn about poetry and to understand its elements than with PERRINE'S SOUND AND SENSE: AN INTRODUCTION TO POETRY. As both an introduction to poetry and an anthology, this classic best-seller succinctly covers the basics of poetry with detailed chapters on the elements of poetry (denotation and connotation, imagery, figurative language, allusion, tone, rhythm and meter, pattern, etc.), unique materials on evaluating poetry, exemplary selections, and exercises and study questions that help readers understand each selection. Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson have assiduously continued the Perrine tradition over several recent editions. Every chapter introduction in this compact and concise anthology bears the mark of Laurence Perrine's crisp, clean, and descriptive prose, and every poem selected as an example is a perfect illustration of the concept at hand. Whether you are a beginner or a more experienced reader of poems, you can profit from this book's step-by-step method for understanding how a poem does what it does. Suggestions for writing help students to sort out their feelings and ideas, enabling them to assist others in sharing their experience.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Reference, Writing, School, Literary Criticism, Literature

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

Reviews

[Dini · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the poetry bible for first-year students in my English major. Very useful, especially for those who need guidance in understanding poetry, like me for instance ;P Those questions at the end of each poem, I can't tell you how much that helped me form some semblance of interpretation. I just found my copy of this book (actually it's my sister's copy, I used her old books for class) among other books that I forgot I still have, so I guess it would be useful whenever I feel the need for some poetic spirit.

I bet my college friends would want to comment on this. Go on guys... :D

[Tiffany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, so to be honest, two stars may be a little generous. As you can probably already tell, I greatly dislike this book. Sure, it might take you by the hand and lead you through a vast number and variety of poems. However, the book has exactly one interpretation for each poem and if you don't nail it exactly, you get penalized (in AP lit). Moreover, finding answers to the questions presented in the book is quite difficult. It's not in the back of the book and it's not easy to find on the internet. Consequently, you never really know when you have a correct or incorrect interpretation of a poem (unless Mrs. Gray validates your claims). It's a shame that the book does not really allow loose interpretations of the selected poems.

[Doug · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I liked most about this book, compared to other instructive books of poetry, is the selection of formalist poetry. Granted, it seemed like half of it was Emily Dickinson (and I'm not even sure if that's an exaggeration to be honest) but that's okay because Emily Dickinson had some great poems and her layers are often friendly to the understanding. This book offers a very intensive introduction to how it intends to appraise the poems which makes it great for anyone new to poetry, as well as an extensive look at the form and sound of formalism.

It's not quite as good for contemporary poems as many other poetry guides on the market--but that is a problem which solves itself, as the majority of books on the market are a contemporary focus.

[Stephan Anstey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a bit dry, but tons of great poems. I really like how they go over meter, it's one of the better tutorials on the matter. I don't particularly love the organization of the book, and I really wish there were a bit more on each poet - more than the years they lived. My favorite part of the book are the guiding questions. Very helpful as you try to breakdown and understand a poem.

The most offensive thing to me was the little dissertation on how a poem is determined to be 'great.' There is an insulting little concept of 'qualified reader' and a dubious little math problem on 'perfection' and 'scope' - old school to say the least.

[Tamsin Barlow · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is good every once in a while to read a text book, to stretch yourself beyond your usual comfortable limits, to give yourself homework. And, among all the books you are reading, to have a book of poetry to pop into now and then-- just to wake you from your drowsy comfort.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The ultimate user's manual for reading poetry.

[Chris Pratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have a greater appreciation and love for poetry because I read this book. The authors say towards the beginning of the book that reading poetry is a skill whose development manifests itself in an increasing ability to appreciate different types of poetry. I agree with that statement and would recommend this book to anyone wanting to develop that skill. There is some forma teaching of concepts like imagery, meter, and rhyme, but I found that useful rather than distracting. It was actually a nice way to break up and organize the hundreds of pages of poems.

Favorite poems
* The Rhodora (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
* I wandered lonely as a cloud (William Wordsworth)
* I felt a Funeral, in my Brain (Emily Dickinson)
* Love (George Herbert)
* The Subalterns (Thomas Hardy)
* On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High (D. C. Berry)
* A Noiseless Patient Spider (Walt Whitman)
* Ulysses (Alfred, Lord Tennyson)

Favorite lines
(Speaking to death)
“…Why swell’st thou then?
One short sleep passed, we wake eternally,
And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.”
(Death, be not proud - John Donne)

“I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.”
Birches (Robert Frost)

“For it is not for what I have put into it that I have written this book,
Nor is it by reading it you will acquire it.”
Whoever You Are Holding Me Now in Hand (Walt Whitman)

“If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin…
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.”
Dulce et Decorum Est (Wilfred Owen)

“Something sinister in the tone
Told me my secret must be known:
Word I was in the house alone
Somehow must have gotten abroad,
Word I was in my life alone,
Word I had no one left but God.”
Bereft (Robert Frost)

“It is always a matter, my darling,
Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish
What I wished you before, but harder.”
The Writer (Richard Wilbur)

Learnings
* Poetry is about being, not meaning. The best poems capture some primal, essential characteristic of life. They encapsulate lived experience, rather than trying to teach something.
* “We should avoid symbol-hunting and to see virtually anything in a poem as symbolic. It is preferable to miss a symbol than to try to find one in every line of a poem.” This piece of advice makes reading poetry less stressful 😂 plus, I think allowing yourself to be submerged in a poem (with no ulterior motive) allows you to see meanings that lie below the surface.
* Good poetry need not have a perfect meter or rhyme scheme. I am still partial to a flawless meter and fixed rhyme scheme, but am learning to see past the meter and rhyme to reach the beating heart of a poem. “In first-rate poetry, sound exists neither for its own sake nor for mere decoration, but to enhance the meaning.”

megrim, spud (v.), barton, lea, tercet, quatrain, gustatory, kinesthetic, cloy, fantail, jamb, offices (assistance), sepal, taffeta, winnow, drowsed, sallow (n.), bourn, croft, barred (striped), ablution, courser, compass (scope), intellection, dram, tippler, losel, loblolly, lout, hunkers, whippet, blarney, ductile, fritillary, linden, tippet, cornice, diurnal, snowdrop, pram, officious, refractory, accretion, prurient, dun, damask, coomb, ermine, vestal, taper (n.), plaint, darkling, hectoring, pyx, accoutered, frowsty, perfidy, scarp, caesura, breve, ictus, iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, spondee, scansion, limn, lay (n.), aural, bluebottle, synesthesia, passing-bells, orison, killdeer, nightjar, limpkin, vesper, debar, impinge, ken, demesne, wanton, clapboard, lawn (fabric), bombast, strumpet, fellies, brinded, charactery, malinger, peignoir, peony, isinglass, bailer, thwart (n.), gunnel, athwart, cedarn, dulcimer, troth, aubade, enjambment, penumbra, shingle (pebbled beach), chancel, wight (unfortunate person), lintel, veldt, sedge, grot, thrall, pard, fay, hawthorn, eglantine, vatic, catkin, hummock, merganser, canvasback, gyre

[Pete · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was, until the other day, just another one of the little unread books hiding on my den shelf. Tired of heavy literature, I pulled it out and glanced through it wondering when I’d bought it, or why. It seemed loaded with poems - and I’m not really much of a poetry person. Never have been.

“Well,” I thought, “Maybe it’s time you gave it another shot.” So I sat down and read the preface and the section titled “Foreword to Students” and realized I had a poetry textbook in my hands. As I leafed through the Table of Contents, I became impressed with its scope - and my ignorance. And then I looked up the authors and realized they were SMU folks - and I wondered where I’d been when they were conducting classes in my home town?

I have the 10th edition of this classic. It’s comprehensive and it includes hundreds of poems - a few even that I recognized and remembered - and there’s even a chapter on the five kinds of feet (iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, and spondee).

But more importantly, there’s a running buildup though the 16 chapters in Part I of how to read, analyze, and interpret a poem that has inspired me to grow beyond just liking a poem based on how well the lines rhyme. I’m dedicated now to following the instructions of the experts to read poetry aloud to myself, to read poems several times, and to decompose a few to appreciate their structure. And I might even try writing a critical essay for my eyes only. What the heck.

This little book will be a long time out before it goes back on the shelf.

[Virginia B · Rating 5 out of 5]

My beat up edition of this book was published in 1956, and was the one I used in high school; I had a great English teacher. Laurence Perrine sure was opinionated, but I don’t remember getting stuck on his opinions, I think we just used this terrific collection to wander about in, and according to my notes, learned some good stuff about the structure of poetry which seems to have stuck with me. It was fun rereading it- it’s where I latched onto some of my favorite poems and poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, e e cummings, Blake, Frost, Amy Lowell’s Patterns. Etc. Next, I’ve dragged out my favorite poetry text from college. Nostalgia.

[Lucy]

I used this book as a "textbook" of sorts for my songwriting class, and it was great. I did not have them read all the poems, and we skipped the section towards the end on "writing about poetry". Obviously this was a poetry book, not a songwriting book, but adapting it for that purpose provided loads of fruitful study and discussion!

[Frida❦ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poem (as the cat) by William Carlos Williams

As the cat
climbed over
the top of

the jamcloset
first the right
forefoot

carefully
then the hind
stepped down

into the pit of
the empty
flowerpot

[J. Alfred · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite some questionable New-Critical bias, this is nevertheless the most informative book on the theory of poetry I've ever read. It comes with an interesting selection of poems, divides nicely into chapters and is downright helpful with definitions, and has come the closest of anything (teachers included) I've ever come across to helping me understand versification and scansion-- not just the terminology involved, that is, but as a tool for helping one understand and appreciate poems. I recommend it wholeheartedly!

[Adrian Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

My high school literature poetry textbook, used by the teacher who taught me to love poetry. I love the selections in here, and the way that it taught me to understand meter and form to appreciate the skill of a poet.

[Xenophon Hendrix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is suitable for self-teaching for those who want to learn more about poetry.

[Randy Cauthen · Rating 2 out of 5]

How did this get to be the standard text? The dude's taste is dubious, his ear is dubious, and he's not a poet.

[Dexter · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poems themselves in this book are great. I love poetry. But the author of the book is so freaking annoying and so freaking pretentious. I can't stand it.

[Matthew Barlow · Rating 1 out of 5]

Forced to use it for a class and despised every minute of it. Poetry is supposed to be a personal journey, but this book tells you exactly what to think and belittles those who think differentally

[laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

by far my favorite 'textbook', if you can call it that, from high school.

[Charles Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Truly excellent survey of English poetry.

[Eric Shaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I entered my "Introduction to Literature" class (or whatever the name of the course was) at Ball State University in 1973, this book--this very third edition!--was the one I carried in.

The book is great, simply great. I don't know how much of the book I read in that quarter of my freshman year, but I just finished a nice, slow read of the entire text, and I learned and re-learned a whole bunch of good stuff.

Written clearly and in great detail, the points Perrine makes are illustrated by an exceptional and impressively broad selection of poems from authors writing in English, and he makes damned good points. He explains a number of difficult to understand notions about poetry, and he gives the best basic explanation (and who needs more?) of meter and rhyme I've ever read.

Encountering again many poems that I must have first encountered within these pages was a thorough and deep pleasure, and now that I actually have three too many degrees, I am again amazed at the poems Perrine shared with students who were most likely first meeting any poems at all.

Laurence Perrine taught me more about poetry than anybody every has, especially since in the years after, I pretty much had to read and study poetry on my own, so I say, "Thank you, Laurence for your good, clear, hard work. You made my life a better life to live."

As a text to introduce yourself to many fine poems and a way to understand poems and poetry, I recommend this one above all others.

[Sharon Dorival · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Timeless Guide to Poetry

Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry by Laurence Perrine and Thomas R. Arp is a masterful guide that unlocks the secrets of poetry, revealing the intricate dance between sound and sense. This classic textbook is an invaluable resource for students, teachers, and poetry enthusiasts alike.

The authors' approach is both accessible and engaging, making complex concepts feel intuitive. They skillfully balance technical analysis with thoughtful interpretation, guiding readers through the world of poetry with clarity and precision.

What sets this book apart is its emphasis on the interplay between sound and sense. Perrine and Arp demonstrate how poetic devices, such as imagery, metaphor, and rhythm, work together to evoke emotions, convey meaning, and create a rich, sensory experience.

With its thoughtful structure, comprehensive coverage, and insightful examples, Sound and Sense is an indispensable companion for anyone seeking to deepen their understanding and appreciation of poetry. Whether you're a seasoned scholar or just beginning your poetic journey, this book will inspire, educate, and delight.

Rating: 5/5 stars

Recommendation: If you're looking for a trusted guide to help you navigate the world of poetry, Sound and Sense is an excellent choice.

[Alyssa Bohon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because it was referenced in a Leland Ryken book, and I didn't realize it was for college students till I was into it. The only downsides of this was a slight concentration of poems with sexual content (presumably because this interests college students), vocabulary notes on words I already know, and several dry appendices on writing papers which I didn't read and therefore feel vaguely unfinished with the book. The main chapters were well done and gave more definition to how I think about poetry. There were a few awful poems, (in the sense that not all poems are pretty) but I found them too unsettling/gruesome to be worth general reading in my opinion; but there were many beautiful poems, as well as tough ones that were worth pondering.

[Tama · Rating 4 out of 5]

This introduction to poetry is standard.

Basic elements from pattern, to figurative language, imagery, allusions, rhythms, tones are all discussed simply and cogently with classic examples.

section two is an anthology from yeats and wordsworth to wallace stevens, dylan thomas and all the
"biggies"

wonderful to re-read this initial serious poetry text. Originally started off as basic first year college... but extremely applicable to the middle and high schooler.

a must for any serious poet or teacher's reference library.

[Isabella Y · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is pretentious and simultaneously uninformed. It features decent poems that are ruined by rambling analysis that create rules for reading poetry that simply do not exist. The cover of the book is purple and I like that.

[Izzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

dead poet’s society !!

[Yossi Yusuf Pinhas · Rating 3 out of 5]

might help if you are not a fan of poetry in general--very good collection. might also be some kind of guidelight to reading poetry, but strict, inflexible and patronising in its sense of dictating.

[Clayton Rasmussen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVED THIS BOOK


BUT IM A POET! SO AHAHA!

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

Old friend or nemesis. A paperback of this sixth edition was the textbook in my first intro to poetry class. Or maybe it was one of the texts in an English 101 class? Flashbacks reading this now.

[Zetykarangastu10gmail.Com]

This book make me interesting, i would like to read more deeper

[Sh _q · Rating 5 out of 5]

its good