Essay, Issues, Poetics

The following pages are excerpted from John Frederick Nims' Western Wind, An Introduction to Poetry:

• Before We Begin
• Sentimentality and Irony
• More about Sentimentality
• The Unwrinkled Words
• Rhythm
• Figures of Speech

The following are essays by poets on aspects of writing poetry:

• The Line
• Denise Levertov's "On the Function of the Line"
• Richard Hugo's essays from The Triggering Town
• William Stafford's "A Way of Writing"
• Understanding Poetry*
• Tradition and the Individual Talent*
• Getting Out of Art's Way*
• Biographia Literaria*

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