How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse

How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse

• Genre: Nonfiction; literary criticism; educational
• Originally Published: 2018
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: Divided into chapters that address various aspects of understanding and appreciating poetry; approximately 224 pages
• Central Concern: In How to Read Poetry Like a Professor, Thomas C. Foster provides a comprehensive and accessible guide to exploring the world of poetry. The book aims to demystify the process of reading, analyzing, and understanding poems. Foster covers a range of topics, including poetic forms, techniques, themes, and the use of sound in poetry. He encourages readers to engage with poetry on deeper levels, offering insights into how to appreciate the nuances and complexities of poetic language and structure. The guide is both an introduction for beginners and a resource for those seeking to enhance their appreciation and understanding of poetry.

Thomas C. Foster, Author

• Bio: An American professor, literary critic, and writer; known for his engaging and accessible approaches to literary education; has a knack for making complex literary concepts understandable to a broad audience.
• Other Works: How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003); How to Read Novels Like a Professor (2008); Reading the Silver Screen (2016) and others.

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Guide:

• English Poetry in Particular
• The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice
• Creativity Within Constraints

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Teaching Guide, students will:

• Explore background information on the origins and purposes of poetry and modern attitudes toward poetry to increase their engagement with and understanding of How to Read Poetry Like a Professor.
• Read/study short paired texts and other resources to deepen their understanding of themes related to English Poetry in Particular, The Universality of the Poetic Impulse Versus the Standout Voice, and Creativity Within Constraints.
• Demonstrate their understanding of the strategies Foster advocates by creating an annotation of Jericho Brown’s poem “Crossing.”
• Evaluate the construction of key arguments that Foster’s text makes about what poetry is, what it can accomplish, and how it works.