Table of Contents

PartI. Formal Introduction 1. What is Poetry? How Should we Read it? 2. Rhythm and Metre 3. Significant Form: Metre and Syntax 4. Creative Form and the Arbitrary Nature of Language PartII. Textual Strategies 5. Figurative Language 6. Poetic Metaphor 7. Hearing Voices in Poetic Texts 8. Speakers with Attitude: Tone and Irony 9. Ambiguity 10. Closure, Pluralismand Undecidability PartIII. Text in Contexts/Contexts in Texts 11. Introducing Contexts 12. Genre 13. The Sonnet 14. Allusion, Influence and Intertextuality 15. Post-Colonial Poetry 16. World Poetry 17. The Poetry of the Earth Glossary Poems and Passages Discussed or Used for Exercises Bibliography

About the Author

Tom Furniss recently retired from the Department of English Studies at the University of Strathclyde in 2017, after teaching poetry, Romanticism, and literary theory for 30 years. He is the author of two monographs on Romanticism, co-author of several editions of the textbook Ways of Reading (Routledge) and recently published two collections of poetry.

Michael Bath is Emeritus Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Strathclyde, where he taught English literature for 40 years, and a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Author of numerous books and articles on literature and the visual arts, he specialises in emblem studies and in 2014 he was elected President of the international Society for Emblem Studies.

Reviews

‘Reading Poetry stands out from other poetry handbooks in its superb combination of practical guidance and theoretical savvy. Students who use this comprehensive guide will be helped to enjoy and discuss poems, introduced to some of the major varieties of poetic criticism, and invited to reflect on what makes poetry important today.’Derek Attridge, Emeritus Professor of English, University of York