The Elements of Poetry: A Comprehensive Course for High Schools and Colleges

Poetry is one of the most challenging subjects. It has been a big challenge both to study it and even to write it because it has inherent rules that determine how it works. To interpret it, understand it or even write it, one needs to understand these rules. Any good poetry enthusiast, critic or writer begins here. This book tries to make the reader understand the bulk of these rules. It uses some of the most exciting and popular poetry through time to examines poetry rules and to diagnose the most common problems that readers of poetry encounter. While the target of this book is majorly students and teachers of poetry in high schools and colleges, the book will be found crucial by anyone in the poetry field. Those who intend to write poetry, for example, will find the book illuminating in its attempt to explain how poems are generally written and what and how poets intend to communicate. The book examines the nature of sound patterns as a major tenet of communication in poetry. These include rhythm, rhyme and the like. The book also examines the elements that help poetry make meaning including use of irony and sarcasm, tone and atmosphere and many others. It then goes on to give twenty six poems which illuminate the issues which are discussed, giving questions which help illuminate these issues and test the reader's understanding of them so far. Teachers and students of poetry will find this section especially important in their study of poetry. A Separate book with suggested answers to the questions given here is available. The book also gives a catalogue of some of the terms used in poetry so that the reader can reflect on their meaning should they present a problem where they are encountered in the book.

Jorges P. Lopez has been teaching Literature in high schools in Kenya and Communication at The Cooperative University in Nairobi. He has been writing Literary Criticism for more than fifteen years and fiction for just over ten years. He has contributed significantly to the perspective of teaching English as a Second Language in high school and to Communication Skills at the college level. He has developed humorous novellas in the Jimmy Karda Diaries Series for ages 9 to 13 which make it easier for learners of English to learn the language and the St. Maryan Seven Series for ages 13 to 16 which challenge them to improve spoken and written language. His interests in writing also spill into Poetry, Drama and Literary Fiction. He has written literary criticism books on Henrik Ibsen, Margaret Ogola, Bertolt Brecht, John Steinbeck, John Lara, Adipo Sidang' and many others.