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Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse Paperback - 1998

by Mary Oliver

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With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner Mary Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work--and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem's narrative and its ideas".

Summary

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance," in the case of Oliver's brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work - and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem's narrative and its ideas."

Reader reviews for Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

From the publisher

Pulitzer-prize winning poet and National Book Award winner, Mary Oliver, provides a graceful manual on the mechanics of poetical composition.

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learned to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance," in the case of this brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Mary Oliver helps us understand what makes a metrical poem work--and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure."

With an anthology of fifty poems representing the best metrical poetry in English, from the Elizabethan Age to Elizabeth Bishop.

Details

  • Title Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
  • Author Mary Oliver
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition First Edition
  • Pages 208
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Ecco Press, Wilmington, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • Publication date 1998-07-27
  • Features Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780395850862 / 039585086X
  • Weight 0.45 lbs (0.20 kg)
  • Dimensions 8.24 x 5.5 x 0.51 in (20.93 x 13.97 x 1.30 cm)
  • Age range 14 to UP years
  • Grade levels 9 - UP
  • Themes
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Category Reference
  • Library of Congress subjects Poetry - Authorship, English language - Versification
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 98002625
  • Dewey Decimal Code 821.009

Media reviews

"What good company Mary Oliver is!" The Los Angeles Times

Citations

  • Booklist, 06/15/1998, Page 1708
  • Library Journal, 08/01/1998, Page 104

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Rules For The Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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Rules For The Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

by Oliver, Mary

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Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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Rules for the Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

by Oliver, Mary

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RULES FOR THE DANCE A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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RULES FOR THE DANCE A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

by Oliver, Mary

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Rules For The Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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Rules For The Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse
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Rules For The Dance: A Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse

by Oliver, Mary

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Rules for the Dance : a Handbook for writing and reading metrical verse
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Rules for the Dance : a Handbook for writing and reading metrical verse

by Oliver, Mary

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Boston MA: Mariner Original / Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. 2nd Printing. Trade Paperback. Near Fine/No Jacket. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. Appears unread. "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance,
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by Mary Oliver

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