Rhyme's Reason: A Guide to English Verse | 
| Author: John Hollander
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $11.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 109672
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3rd
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 140
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.5
ISBN: 0300088329
Dewey Decimal Number: 821.009
EAN: 9780300088328
ASIN: 0300088329
Publication Date: March 1, 2001
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Amazon.com Review
In the grand tradition of Alexander Pope, John Hollander offers this explication/enactment of poetic form. There are sonnets about how to write sonnets, haiku about how to write haiku, and so on. The writing is clever, entertaining, and instructive, which will surprise no one familiar with Hollander's work. What's even more impressive, though, is how often these poems--which could so easily start to feel like homework--engage you emotionally. The sestina about sestinas is beautiful, and, excepting Dylan Thomas's "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," Hollander's villanelle about villanelles is as captivating an example as one will find of the old French fixed form.
Product Description
In his classic text, Rhyme's Reason, the distinguished poet and critic John Hollander surveys the schemes, patterns, and forms of English verse, illustrating each variation with an original and witty self-descriptive example. In this substantially expanded and revised edition, Hollander adds a section of examples taken from centuries of poetry that exhibit the patterns he has described.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 Solid introductory book March 6, 2008
Hollander's book is a solid little primer on some of the major issues of poetry. Using the technique of "formal self-description" Hollander provides examples of various meters, rhetorical figures, and forms of verse. The writing is clever, and the self-descriptions are insightful.
That said, I think the book is not super useful for teachers, as a textbook that is. Were I to teach a poetry or literature course, I would probably only copy those sections out of the book that cover specific rhetorical figures and stanzaic forms that I planed to teach in my class. Otherwise, a lot of the material will seem superfluous to the work you're doing.
How Hollander Says a Thing October 6, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Read _Rhyme's Reason_ as one delights
In proper forms the poet writes.
With this attention getter
(A rondeau would be better)
I recommend this handy guide.
John Hollander, by way of me,
An humble reviewer, as you can see,
Makes sense of verse terrifically.
Read _Rhyme's Reason_.
My third edition brings my applause!
A good deal of poetic laws.
Find more familiar poetry
In history and society.
Shop wisely - heed the ooh's and ah's.
Read _Rhyme's Reason_.
All The Funs In How You Say A Thing: An Explanation Of Meter & Versification
 A playful way to learn! November 13, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I bought this book for a class and it is my favorite of all our poetry texts. It is just plain fun to read. Hollander presents poetic forms by using them as he explains each concept. I noticed that some people thought this was "too witty" to learn from, but I found it helpful in that I forgot that I was trying to learn and simply just began playing with language. Which is as it should be when writing poetry!
Overall a great book, I recommend it for beginning poets especially. But I'm guessing it would be a fun refresher for veterans of word-craft as well.
 Not particularly useful September 13, 2005
8 out of 15 found this review helpful
Bit too witty to learn anything. The author is too busy being cute to explain anything very well. Also, only marking stressed syllables only does half of the job of scansion; marking both stressed and unstressed syllables provides a complete visual aid for discerning meter. Add to that the author's party-line views on free verse and you have a rather lame book. Consider this a book-length version of Coleridge's horrible little piece on meter. Timothy Steele's All the Fun's in how you Say a Thing is much better.
Proves that rhyme can still be relevant July 9, 2003
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is a clever and masterful book. The author demolishes the new fashional nonsense about rhyme being creatively passe. Rhyme is not necessarily restrictive or formulaic. It can still be powerful, enjoyable and richly expressive.
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