The Sounds of Poetry

From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, “a keenly idiosyncratic account of the place of poetry in our time . . . not only interesting but suspenseful to read” (James Logenbach, The Nation).

“Poetry is a vocal, which is to say a bodily, art,” Robert Pinsky declares in The Sounds of Poetry. “The medium of poetry is the human body: the column of air inside the chest, shaped into signifying sounds in the larynx and the mouth. In this sense, poetry is as physical or bodily an art as dancing.”

As a former Poet Laureate, Pinsky is one of America’s best spokesmen for poetry. In this fascinating book, he explains how poets use the “technology” of poetry—its sounds—to create works of art that are “performed” in us when we read them aloud.

He devotes brief, informative chapters to accent and duration, syntax and line, like and unlike sounds, blank and free verse. He cites examples from the work of fifty different poets—from Shakespeare, Donne, and Herbert to W. C. Williams, Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, C. K. Williams, Louise Glück, and Frank Bidart.

This ideal introductory volume belongs in the library of every poet and student of poetry.

“[A] short book that should go a long way toward reuniting poetry and the public.” —David Barber, The Atlantic Monthly

“A profoundly uplifting book . . . Pinsky returns to language a sense of possibility and delight.” —Brian Gunn, San Francisco Chronicle

“One of the marvelous things about this book is Pinsky’s deep recognition that a poem is successful not because of the poet’s ambition or sense of purpose but because of the effect it creates in the reader, and in many readers over time.” —Graham Christian, The Boston Phoenix