The Poetry Toolkit: For Readers and Writers

"The Poetry Toolkit is a splendid guide for anyone who wants to understand better how poetry works, how to read it more insightfully, and what is involved in writing it.
William Harmon draws on decades of experience both as a professor of literature with a special devotion to teaching poetry and as an accomplished poet who knows the practical side of writing poetry firsthand. From the opening pages onward, he establishes informal, direct, genial contact with his reader, who is equally entertained and instructed.
His wonderfully original Toolkit is a delight to read and the best guide to poetry for writers and readers that I know of."
—Frank J Kearful, University of Bonn, Germany

"In The Poetry Toolkit William Harmon uses a glossary of literary terms as a cruise ship to take the reader on a voyage of wonder, discovery, and recognition around the world of poetry. A poet himself, scholar, teacher, critic, he marshals his seemingly limitless erudition in discussions of refreshing clarity, with a relish for language, wry wit, modesty, a willingness to pause and look again, a willingness to be surprised. He is a peerless tour guide, with anecdotes you will never forget. And you will never think of poetry, or think of writing poetry, in quite the same way again."
—Robert Morgan, Cornell University