Detailing the formal concepts of poetry and methods of poetic analysis, Mary Kinzie shows in this text how the craft of writing can guide the art of reading poems. Using examples from the major traditions of lyric and meditative poetry in English from the medieval period to the present, Kinzie considers the sounds and rhythms of poetry along with the ideas and thought-units within poems. The three parts of this book lead the reader through an introduction to the ways we understand poetry. The first section provides step-by-step instruction to familiarize students with the formal elements of poems, from the most obvious feature through to the most devious. Part one presents the style, grammar and rhetoric of poems with examples from various literary periods. Part two discusses how elements of a poem are controlled in time through a careful explanation and explorations of meter and rhythm. Also examined here are the "four freedoms" of free verse. Part three closes the book with practicum chapters on writing form. Included here are: writing exercises for both novice as well as advanced writers; a dictionary of poetic terms with poetry examples; and an annotated bibliography for further explanatory reading.