Art and Craft
Written: Mar 21 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Writing style, author's credentials, good examples
Cons: Many poetry forms omitted, one terrible sample poem
The Bottom Line: No matter who you are, you will probably learn something from Michael J. Bugeja's The Art and Craft of Poetry.
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| Carrathon's Full Review: |
I don’t know what happened to the eminent scholar, professor and poet Michael J. Bugeja, erstwhile editorial board member for Writer’s Digest Magazine. That latter credential was some time ago, and although I let my subscription lapse, Mr. Bugeja had long since ceased his affiliation with the publication. Still, he has left the reading public, particularly those partial to poetry, with at least one great legacy – his 1994 masterpiece The Art and Craft of Poetry (Writer’s Digest Books). I purchased my copy about eight years ago for $20, well worth the money.
Although Bugeja is a brilliant man and an accomplished writer, he doesn’t throw his accolades in the reader’s face. From reading just the introduction, you become immediately comfortable with Bugeja, and accept him as your poetry mentor, so to speak. I had written and published a number of poems prior to reading this book, but I also realized that I still had so much to learn. I had a yearning for the abstruse, the elaborate, the unique. The Art and Craft of Poetry addresses these in some detail, as well strategies for composing the type of poetry that has dominated the scene for the past 30 years.
Bugeja’s approach makes the casual poet comfortable with attempting more difficult forms. The brainstorming exercises and rough drafts that precede the examples of complex poems attest that even the best poets occasionally struggle with words and must chip ever so slowly at the periodic writer’s block. The idea is not to emulate Shakespeare, Bugeja says, but to find your own style and themes with which you are comfortable. If you are a poet or even an aspiring one, Bugeja gives you confidence that you already possess considerable facility with words.
The book is divided into 21 chapters, seven each comprising parts one, two and three. The respective sections are titled Journals and Genres, Tools of the Trade, and Formats and Form. While Bugeja dedicates only 28 pages to form poems (Chapter 19), he manages to cover the villanelle, sestina, pantoum, ballade, triolet and rondeau. This is just a sampling of the variety of arcane forms that exist, but more than enough to keep even the most adventuresome poet busy a long time. Sonnets, deserving of their own chapter, are covered in 18. Bugeja lays out simple formulas and charts to help the novice form poet remember line, word and syllable count, as well as rhyme scheme. An example of a sestina’s form looks like this:
1. . . (Pattern:ABCDEF) 2. . . (Pattern: FAEBDC). 3. . .(Pattern: CFDABE)
4. . .(Pattern: ECBFAD) 5. . .(Pattern: DEACFB 6. . .(Pattern: BDFECA) (302).
In the above example, the numerals 1 through 6 represent stanzas, and the capital letters represent similar end sounds, namely Lourdes, walks, resorts, tales, heals, appears (ibid.).
Bugeja’s goal in writing this book is not the proliferation of exotic form poetry. He spends most of the book discussing themes, subjects and genres, as well as breaking down poems into their distinct components. Some readers may find this too reminiscent of their high school English classes, but Bugeja manages to instruct without being pedagogical or condescending. Many of the examples are poems that he has written, which may seem vain to some. But Bugeja’s poems are drawn from personal experience and deep rumination, and most readers will respect him for this. Other featured poets include Diane Wakoski, Ronald Wallace, E.B. White, Dana Gioia, Thomas Hardy, and Joyce Carol Oates, whose atrocious pantoum WELCOME TO DALLAS! appears on pages 318 and 319. This book also demonstrates that simple, mundane life events can yield great poetry. Pick a topic in the news. A friend’s wedding. A relative’s death. A baby’s christening.
The final chapter, although extremely short, is an excellent summation of those that precede it. Bugeja offers his sincere encouragement, and hopefully, leaves the reader with a burning desire to create something wonderful.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Carrathon
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Member: Allan Heller
Location: Hatboro, PA
Reviews written: 212
Trusted by: 35 members
About Me:
I am a free lance writer and author of three books.
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