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<p>List of Sidebars vii</p> <p>Introduction 1</p> <p>1 The Iambic Pentameter Line 7</p> <p>2 Other Meters 49</p> <p>3 Beyond the Line 99</p> <p>4 Free Verse 151</p> <p>5 Song 193</p> <p>6 Advanced Topics 237</p> <p>Glossary 275</p> <p>Index of Poets and Poems 297</p>

<p>Charles Hartman is Poet in Residence and Lucy Marsh Haskell ’19 Professor of English at Connecticut College, USA, where he teaches poetry writing, modern and contemporary poetry, and song.  He is the author of seven collections of poems, most recently <i>New & Selected Poems</i> (2008), and critical books on free verse, jazz and poetry, and computer poetry.</p>

<p>To read a poem with complete pleasure we must understand how it works rhythmically and how its rhythms are related to those of a whole network of other poems. <i>Verse</i> is a seminal introduction to prosody —the rhythmic organization of poetic language—for any student learning to read or write poetry.  Written in a clear and engaging style by a poet and teacher with more than 30 years of experience teaching the subject, this book explains the fundamental components and technical details necessary to fully understand the meaning of poems. </p> <p>Along with important historical and theoretical background material, the author discusses basic definitions, methods of scansion, and broader techniques of reading. The chapters cover iambic pentameter and other kinds of metrical verse, rhythm and rhyme, free verse, song, and advanced topics such as poetic meter, linguistic approaches to verse, and the computer scansion of metrical poetry. The  book is also supplemented by  a user-friendly website featuring student exercises and additional resources.  Addressing fundamental topics that so often go untaught in today’s poetry courses, this is an essential text for anyone wishing to fully understand the meaning of poetry.</p>

<p>“This is a text that will <i>work</i>: Hartman's experience as a teacher is everywhere in  evidence, and his care and inventiveness in presenting key concepts  make the complexities of metrical analysis far more accessible than  most similar texts .... I have great admiration for this text and  have learned a lot from it; my students will learn even more." —<i>Malcolm Woodland, University of Toronto</i></p> <p>“It combines a high level of literary scholarship with a practitioner’s awareness and a ready-friendly style.”— <i>Neil Roberts, Sheffield University</i></p>

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