The Poem's Heartbeat: A Manual of Prosody (Copper Canyon Classics)

“The Poem€s Heartbeat may well be the finest general book available on prosody.€-Library Journal (starred review)

“A provocative, definitive manual.€-Publishers Weekly

Finally back in print, this slender, user-friendly guide to rhyme, rhythm, meter, and form sparks “intuitive and technical lightning-flashes€ for poets and readers curious to know a poem€s inner workings. Clear, good-humored, and deeply readable, Alfred Corn€s book is the modern classic on prosody-the art and science of poetic meter.

Each of the book€s ten chapters is a progressive, step-by-step presentation rich with examples to illustrate concepts such as line, stress, scansion marks, slant rhyme, and iambic pentameter. “By the book€s end,€ noted a rave review in The Boston Review, “Corn, magi-teacher and impeccable guide, has taught the novice to become artist and magician.€ The Poem€s Heartbeat also includes a selected bibliography and encourages readers and students to carry their investigations further.

The word “line€ comes from the Latin linea, itself derived from the word for a thread of linen. We can look at the lines of poetry as slender compositional units forming a weave like that of a textile. Indeed, the word “text€ has the same origin as the word “textile.€ It isn€t difficult to compare the compositional process to weaving, where thread moves from left to right, reaches the margin of the text, then shuttles back to begin the next unit . . .