14 feb 2011

Sound And Sense

I realized that my graduate students don't have much experience reading poetry at all. I'm recommending them some really basic books of poetic analysis, like Sound and Sense by Laurence Perrine or Western Wind by John Frederic Nims. What is the best of this genre? Ciardi's How Does a Poem Mean seems a little dated to me.

There's nothing like this in Spanish that is very good. The idea of Comentario de textos literarios seems to mechanistic. I also think it would be a good idea for them to be able to do it in both languages, since they are mostly native English speakers.

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In high-school French I was taught "explication du texte." This was a series of very specific questions that could be asked of any text.

2 comentarios:

scott g.f.bailey dijo...

I've always liked Perrine's Story and Structure, so I might seek out Sound and Sense, which I've never heard of before now. I have the Norton anthology of poetry on the shelf, too, but it would be fabulous if you could recommend another introductory text or two.

Jonathan dijo...

Vendler has one, and there's Kenneth Koch's Making Your Own Days.