Why Poetry

I liked this book of poetic analysis because of the way the author takes care not to make lofty pronouncements about fine poetry or to reduce the purpose of poetry to the doctrines of one particular school or another. It comes from reading poetry aloud, in public and before classrooms, where he was able to observe what effect poetry has on readers. He is not afraid to counter other critics opinions when they seem to be wrong or incomplete compared to what he had learned first-hand. He says he began writing this book thinking about how poetry works in and of itself, but only later began to consider the social effects of poetry. A lot of the writing is presented in the form of his personal stories about growing up with poetry and listening to what was taught in school about it. Over the course of a lifetime he discovered strong and appealing poetic voices whose work challenged what was emphasized as being the role of poetry. He addresses the mysterious topic of the meaning of poetry and especially poems which are hard to understand. Lots of the examples, but not all of them, come from 20th century English language poetry but the author does not imply that this the only important kind of poetry. His chapter on symbolism was refreshingly straightforward as it leads the reader through what might be a confusing subject.