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Summary
Summary
From the simplest couplet to the mind-boggling pantoum, the award-winning team behind A Poke in the I shows us the many fascinating ways poetic forms take shape.
Please
Open this book for something
Extraordinary.
Twenty-nine different poetic forms await you
Inside these pages. How many
Can you master?
From sonnets to double dactyls,
Odes to limericks--
Raschka and Janeczko (and a frisky mule)
Make learning the rules of poetry
So much fun!
In this splendid and playful volume, acclaimed poetry anthologist Paul B. Janeczko and Caldecott Honor illustrator Chris Raschka present lively examples of twenty-nine poetic forms, demonstrating not only the (sometimes bendable) rules of poetry, but also the spirit that brings these forms so wonderfully to life. Featuring formal poems, some familiar and some never before published, from the likes of Eleanor Farjeon (aubade), X. J. Kennedy (elegy), Ogden Nash (couplet), Liz Rosenberg (pantoum), and William Shakespeare, the sonnet king himself, A Kick in the Head perfectly illustrates Robert Frost's maxim that poetry without rules is like a tennis match without a net. Back matter includes notes on poetic forms.
Reviews (2)
Horn Book Review
(Intermediate, Middle School, High School) Janeczko writes, ""Knowing the rules makes poetry -- like sports -- more fun, for players and spectators alike."" This smart new collection, assembled by the creators of A Poke in the I (rev. 7/01), beautifully introduces the rules of poetry on a variety of literary playing fields. The poems -- ranging from light verse (""Kitchen crickets make a din, / sending taunts to chilly kin, / 'You're outside, but we got in'"") to a Shakespearean sonnet (number twelve) and an accompanying parody -- are arranged by form, with tercet, haiku, acrostic poem, limerick, roundel, double dactyl, epitaph, and aubade among the twenty-nine included. Each poem appears along with a small pictorial mnemonic (there's an urn for ode, a pair of birds for couplet) up in one corner of the page, an unobtrusive sentence describing the form, and a bright, full-color illustration that decorates but never dictates meaning. The back matter consists of expanded notes on and explanations of each form. The title poem (an example of concrete poetry, by Joan Bransfield Graham) proclaims that ""poetry jumpstarts...imagination""; this book shows how that's done. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
"Why, you may ask, does a poem have rules?" asks Janeczko in his introduction; "The answer is: rules make the writing of a poem more challenging, more exciting." He proceeds to present 29 different poetic types, from the mundane couplet and the deceptively easy haiku to the villanelle, epitaph and pantoum. Each poem, collected from both writers for children and the Old Masters (Lear and Shakespeare), is accompanied by a short explanation (longer explanations appear in the backmatter) and a characteristically playful watercolor, ink, and collage illustration from Raschka (who also keys icons to each poem type). Gary Soto's "Ode to Pablo's Tennis Shoes" is elegantly flanked by two beat-up sneakers elevated on ornate pedestals; Joan Bransfield Graham's "Is There a Villain in Your Villanelle?" appears with furtive, trench-coated figures sneaking on and off the page. A beautiful, beautifully clear celebration of the discipline of poetry--and the possibilities offered by that discipline--this offering will find use both in the hands of eager poets and on the reference shelf. (Picture book/poetry. 8+) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
