The Poem's Heartbeat

<B>An indispensable guide for poets readers students and teachers.</B><p><p>“<I>The Poem's Heartbeat </I>may well be the finest general book available on prosody.—<I>Library Journal </I>(starred review)</p><p>“A provocative definitive manual.—<I>Publishers Weekly</I></p><p>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 <I>the</I> modern classic on prosody—the art and science of poetic meter.</p><p>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 <I>The Boston Review</I> “Corn magi-teacher and impeccable guide has taught the novice to become artist and magician. <I>The Poem's Heartbeat</I> also includes a selected bibliography and encourages readers and students to carry their investigations further.</p><p><I>The word “line comes from the Latin</I> linea<I> 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 . . .</I></p><BR>