What are the best books to help me understand poetry better?

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Just read. A bunch of faggots here will tell you to get books to hold your hand and they'll recommend Stephen Frye or some shit.
Just get an Anthology like the Norton or the Bloom and read a bunch from each era, then go from there.

>>7753002
Eh, Stephen's book is ok if you want to start practicing poetry. OP gave no indication he wants to practice, just read.

And in that case, yea, you might as well just read an casually look up different forms.

I found Poetic Designs by Stephen Adams very helpful when I was learning how to read poetry. The most important thing is learning meter and scansion. After that, knowing some schemes n tropes is good too, but all you really need to read is poetry.

i always shill An Introduction to English Poetry by James Fenton because i found it insightful, precise, and charming. nothing's necessary but if you want to learn poetry this is a good teeing-off point

>>7752980
The Iliad

>>7753002
this guy's an idiot and has no idea what he's talking about

yeah op an introduction to astro-physics is just hand holding, you should just dive in and do it yourself!!!!
an introduction to brain surgery is just hand holding, u just have to dive right in and start slicing shit!!!!
etc

just use the wiki, it exists for a reason and was written by an actual teacher
http://4chanlit.wikia.com/wiki/Poetry

>>7753377
I agree with you, but

>yeah op an introduction to astro-physics is just hand holding, you should just dive in and do it yourself!!!!
>an introduction to brain surgery is just hand holding, u just have to dive right in and start slicing shit!!!!
>etc

this is not a great comparison. Poetry is not brain surgery. Anyone can pick up some poems and enjoy them without any feel for meter.

I remember as a teenager reading Keats' Ode to a Nightingale because one of my teachers told me it was good, and even though I didn't understand most of it, and I had no knowledge of meter, I still felt the enormous weight and sublimity of the lines. It was a dark and mysterious poem to a boy not yet initiated into all the tropes, meters, &c of poetry.

So while it's better to learn about how poetry works before diving into it, it's really not anything like a difficult science that must be learned first. Many unlearned people enjoy poetry just fine.

>>7754169
>Anyone can pick up some poems and enjoy them without any feel for meter.

OP specifically said he wants to understand poetry better. I'm assuming he already enjoys poetry and that's why he wants to learn about it. There's nothing wrong with wanting to learn more about what you enjoy, and he won't learn them all just by reading poetry.

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>>7752980
I've often why iambic is considered satirical in Greek, but suitable for grandiose Tragedies in Shakespeare.

Or why Cicero wrote tracts in di-trochees.

And especially why the Ionian Elegiac poets wrote Dactylic Distichs... Apparently this was the preferred format for many poets in Greece.

Whenever I write, I naturally fall into a dodacasyllabic verse... It's somehow always twelve syllables, this is considered part of the Alexandrine or French method. It may just be my individual inclination or there may be a Greco-Gallic connection in my background.

Either way, I believe that it is worth studying verse and using different forms to convey different ideas.

>>7754169
anyone can pick up a brain and start slicing at it and they'll have fun but they won't get results. anyone can pick up a poem and start reading it and they'll have fun but they won't get the most out of it.

>>7753010
You in woodland's class?

>>7754262
What does this
>I've often why iambic is considered satirical in Greek, but suitable for grandiose Tragedies in Shakespeare.

>Or why Cicero wrote tracts in di-trochees.

>And especially why the Ionian Elegiac poets wrote Dactylic Distichs... Apparently this was the preferred format for many poets in Greece.

>Whenever I write, I naturally fall into a dodacasyllabic verse... It's somehow always twelve syllables, this is considered part of the Alexandrine or French method. It may just be my individual inclination or there may be a Greco-Gallic connection in my background.

have to do with this
>Either way, I believe that it is worth studying verse and using different forms to convey different ideas.

you pretentious fuck