Research Guides: SHSU Common Reader 2021: Counting Descent: Poetry Resources

Videos from Films on Demand

Purpose of Poetry: To Educate and Entertain
Baraka shares "First Fire," a poem about the Civil War, and "The Pet's Reward," written in an Afro-American form he invented.
Language of Poetry
Poets struggle with the "tiredness" of words and phrases. Poets reach into the depths of themselves to find creative uses for language.
Poetry is an Inborn Gift
Nature of Poetry
Clifton reads a playful poem that contradicts what many people think about the elite nature of poetry.
Poet Laureate Rita Dove
"Poetry becomes a voice to power. Poetry tells the truth."

Poetry Analysis
A step by step to poetry analysis, provided by the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Handout

Oxford companion to modern poetry
Call Number: PR601 2013 (eBook)
ISBN: 9780191744525
The Oxford dictionary of literary terms by Baldick, Chris
Call Number: PN98 .B35 2015 (eBook)
ISBN: 9780191783234
The Poem Is You by Stephanie Burt
ISBN: 9780674737877
Contemporary American poetry has plenty to offer new readers, and plenty more for those who already follow it. Yet its difficulty and sheer variety leaves many readers puzzled or overwhelmed. The critic, scholar, and poet Stephanie Burt sets out to help. The Poem Is You will appeal to poets, teachers, and students, but it is intended especially for readers who want to learn more about contemporary American poetry but who have not known where or how to start. It describes what American poets have fashioned for one another, and what they can give us today.
Beautiful and Pointless by David Orr
Call Number: PN1031 .O77
ISBN: 0061673455
Publication Date: 2011-04-05
Award-winning New York Times Book Review poetry columnist David Orr delivers an engaging, amusing, and stimulating tour through the world of poetry. With echoes of Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer, Orr's Beautiful & Pointless offers a smart and funny approach to appreciating an art form that many find difficult to embrace.