Rating: 
Summary: Guiding analysis
Review: A good introduction to the mechanics, usefulness, and limitations of scansion and rhyme forms. His examples are well-chosen and illuminating.My main beef with Fussell is that I think he puts too much stress on the limitations of convention -- on how much past use of a form shackles future use. But then, I'm a young poet with a couple bones to pick, so apply salt as needed.
Rating: 
Summary: Good
Review: Expensive isn't it! But it's the most excellent book on writing poetry and poetic form I've read. Fussell has a masterful understanding of the material and handles it with great style and insight.
Rating:
Summary: Guiding analysis
Review: Fussell describes how forms of poetry define and focus the poem. He does this really well. If I knew a really effective superlative, I'd use it here. Nothing comes to mind. Shouldn't have drunk so much. This is the best book on poetry.
Rating:
Summary: the best book on poetry
Review: Fussell describes how forms of poetry define and focus the poem. He does this really well. If I knew a really effective superlative, I'd use it here. Nothing comes to mind. Shouldn't have drunk so much. This is the best book on poetry.
Rating:
Summary: And for the poet!
Review: Fussell's foreword says that his book is for aspiring readers, not aspiring writers. But if you are an aspiring poet, I think Fussell has something to offer that is absent in most "handbooks".
One of the most important things Fussell addresses is how the form of a poem affects the meaning and impression of the total poem. For example, he notes how many poetic forms are inevitably coloured by their initial or most famous use. He says regarding Tennyson's In Memoriam stanza-form, that it "is now so closely associated with the sturdy, serviceable elegaic atmosphere of In Memoriam itself that...its uses now seem limited to occasions which either resemble or mock the original" (Ch 8 The English Stanzas).
Another chapter that poets will find helpful is Metrical Variations, in which Fussell examines how poets substitute variant feet to create particular effects. Or if your interest is in free verse, he devotes a chapter to examining the characteristics of successful free verse, including how line breaks create effects.
This is not a substitute for a general handbook of poetry, and assumes a minimal knowledge of poetic technique, meter, &c. But if you are serious about reading or writing poetry, I don't think you can afford to miss this book.
Rating:
Summary: excellent text
Review: I came across this book for my Poetic Analysis class in college. It is an exellent book on meter and form. I can't even say how much this book has helped me with both reading and writing poetry. If you want to write better poetry or understand the poetry you read, then this is a good book to pick up.
Rating:
Summary: excellent text
Review: I came across this book for my Poetic Analysis class in college. It is an exellent book on meter and form. I can't even say how much this book has helped me with both reading and writing poetry. If you want to write better poetry or understand the poetry you read, then this is a good book to pick up.
Rating:
Summary: a classic in the field of formal verse
Review: This book is a classic of prosodic exposition. (And understand, when I call a book a classic, I am not just lapsing into a cliche; it really IS a classic.) Fussell shows us the relations between form and content, between rhyme and rhythm on the one hand and the function of these formal devices to illuminate meaning on the other. The book also devotes a chapter to empirical observations on the properties of free verse, and it includes a concise bibliography of other works on prosody. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: a classic in the field of formal verse
Review: This book is a classic of prosodic exposition. (And understand, when I call a book a classic, I am not just lapsing into a cliche; it really IS a classic.) Fussell shows us the relations between form and content, between rhyme and rhythm on the one hand and the function of these formal devices to illuminate meaning on the other. The book also devotes a chapter to empirical observations on the properties of free verse, and it includes a concise bibliography of other works on prosody. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: An oldie but goodie on poetry
Review: This is a lucid, engaging short book on the elements of poetry listed in the title: meter and form. Fussell does not provide the kind of encyclopedic information found in many poetry "handbooks"; what he does offer is a basic approach to scansion and analysis, and models for using these techniques in reading and writing about poems. This is a classic text, written with a great love of formal poetry, and referred to often by students and writers of poetry. The only thing that keeps my rating under 10 is that it is fairly out of date, and there are more recent texts that cover contemporary poets and verse forms with more rigor than Fussell. But for a readable treatment of the accentual-syllabic tradition and the first century or so of free verse, this book is a gem.
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