Understanding Poetry

This contemporary, distinctive, and inclusive anthology offers a fresh introduction to poetry. Like its parent text, Understanding Literature, Understanding Poetry features updated organization, integrated yet accessible discussions of historical and cultural contexts and critical approaches, and a rich table of contents. Accompanied by the Understanding Literature CD-ROM and Web Site, this new collection will give teachers and students richer, more relevant experiences in reading, thinking, and writing about poetry.

• A omprehensive and well-balanced table of contents includes canonical authors and compelling new voices not often anthologized, with an emphasis on the writing of ethnically diverse poets.
• Complete coverage of formal elements teaches students the basics of studying poetry, such as analyzing rhyme and meter, reading for metaphor and simile, and identifying poetic forms.
• Distinctive Poetry Casebooks encourage students to explore specific topics, themes, and artists in greater depth, such as "Poetry and Social Activism between the Wars" and "Race and Representation." Casebooks facilitate focused class discussions and provide rich topics for writing and research.
• Abundant visual texts?including a four-color section?enrich the study of literature with related photographs and works of art, providing lively new contexts in which to analyze authors, artistic developments, and cultural movements.
• Chapter 22 on Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance provides a multimedia poetry experience, with support materials on the CD-ROM, including audio clips of related jazz and blues music.