Teach Yourself Writing Poetry

by Matthew Sweeney, John Hartley Williams

The bestselling guide to finding your voice, writing poetry, and getting published

Teach Yourself Writing Poetry is a user-friendly and comprehensive guide that will prove indispensable if you're seeking creative guidance, inspiration, and practical advice. Covering everything from mood, style, and tone to learning about poetry on the 'Net, this fully updated edition will help you find your voice. Containing straightforward advice on how to get published, the very latest on prizes, festivals, and performance poetry as well as plenty of useful examples and exercises to try out yourself, it is a thoroughly readable and engaging book.

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Matthew Sweeney was an Irish poet.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

Reviews

[Tracy Gaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting but stopped short of sharing genuine poetry writing tips + skills, the 'rules of the dance' as it were. Felt the authors a bit arrogant, self-important and inhospitable - something poetry is not.

[Jenny Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

For someone like myself with a limited knowledge of poetry writing, this book felt like an excellent beginning. I enjoyed many of the exercises, and I imagine I will return to them. The text is a bit dated, and the authors were definitely writing for a British audience. Even so, I thought the actual writing parts had enough value to make the whole thing worth reading.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good starting place. There are some interesting exercises in here to get the juices flowing, but not enough solid technical advice. I'd have enjoyed more explanation of the terms and techniques of writing poetry, but for the most part the book just tosses you into the pool and assumes you know what you're doing. This can be helpful, but there's a learning curve here that the book doesn't address.

If you already kind of know what you're doing, it's great stuff. If not, there are lots of other how-to books on poetry that start off a little more basic.

[Andrew Fisk · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good way to gain confidence in writing poetry would be to read this book. I will need to refer back to some of the sections when I am more experienced but at least it has given me some idea how to approach the writing.

[Kenneth Lambie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very useful and worth reading. A good starting point.