How To Think Like A Poet (the Poets That Made Our World And Why We Need Them)

By (author) George Dai
Description:
An entertaining guide to history''s most influential and inspiring poets – from Homer and Sappho to Shakespeare and Frank O''Hara – and how they can teach us to better understand the world around us. How did the greatest poets in history make the world anew? And what can we learn from the magic, wisdom and humour of their poetry? From the genius of the Ancient Greeks through to the love poetry and metaphysics of the Renaissance, through to the New York poets of the 20th century, this is the ultimate guide to the greatest writers of the human age. Through short, biographical portraits, poet and writer Dai George provides an entertaining introduction to the great works of poetry, and a welcoming guide to how we can read them. He addresses questions poets have grappled with: How can we truly describe the world? How can we express love, grief or friendship? How can poetry help us to understand justice, dreams or anger? This book paints vivid pictures of a global selection of renowned poets throughout history: from Sappho, Li Bai and Rumi, to William Shakespeare and John Donne, to Frank O Hara, Pablo Neruda and Sylvia Plath. George also seeks to re-examine the canon, traditionally dominated by Western, white and male poets, and bring to light major figures from other important cultures and communities, including China, India and the Caribbean.
Table of contents:
Introduction 1 How to Think Like Homer 2 How to Think Like Sappho 3 How to Think Like Li Bai 4 How to Think Like Jalal al-Din Rumi 5 How to Think Like Dante Alighieri 6 How to Think Like Geoffrey Chaucer 7 How to Think Like William Shakespeare 8 How to Think Like John Donne 9 How to Think Like John Milton 10 How to Think Like Matsuo Basho 11 How to Think Like William Wordsworth 12 How to Think Like Walt Whitman 13 How to Think Like Emily Dickinson 14 How to Think Like Rabindranath Tagore 15 How to Think Like T. S. Eliot 16 How to Think Like Langston Hughes 17 How to Think Like Pablo Neruda 18 How to Think Like Elizabeth Bishop 19 How to Think Like Aimé Césaire 20 How to Think Like Dylan Thomas 21 How to Think Like Frank O’Hara 22 How to Think Like Sylvia Plath 23 How to Think Like Audre Lorde 24 How to Think Like a Contemporary Poet Acknowledgements Permissions Index
Review quote:
This is a wonderfully lucid and compelling account of how poetry works and why it matters. In 24 exhilarating chapters, George guides us from Homer’s Iliad to the Instapoetry of today. A triumph in both concept and execution, How to Think Like a Poet fizzes almost audibly with intellectual energy and excitement.
Review quote:
With an infectious delight in his material, Dai George is a sure and skilful guide through some of poetry’s most significant waters, opening our eyes to its everyday wonders. Thanks to its consciously global canvas, How to Think Like a Poet does something rather different to your usual poetic history or handbook, opening up fresh connections and avenues of thought across its chapters. George''s agile, luminous, refreshing readings of individual poets down the centuries reveal just how much they have to offer us today.
Review quote:
Poetry haters will fall in love with poetry and the poetry lover will walk away refreshed after reading just a few pages of this authoritative, wide-ranging and witty book that is persistently fascinating and always an easy read!
Biographical note:
Dai George is a poet, novelist, critic and academic. His first poetry collection, The Claims Office, was an Evening Standard book of the year. He is the former reviews editor of Poetry London and has taught creative writing for many years at various universities. He is currently Lecturer in Creative Arts and Humanities at UCL. His poetry has appeared widely in magazines and anthologies. His