Reference Book of the Week: Poetry Handbook

In honor of National Poetry Month, we will be featuring reference books related to poetry. I would like to remind our students to submit their poems for our Annual Poetry Contest. Find details about the contest and rules here. Today we are featuring the Poetry Handbook: A Dictionary of Terms by Babette Deutsch. This is a no-frills dictionary of poetry terms and concepts. After the preface, which provides some background on the art and craft of poetry, readers can use this volume to find definitions. One way to  use this book is to address the common class assignment of explicating a poem, i.e. doing a line by line explanation of a poem. If you need a little help knowing the difference between rhyme and rhythm, or you need to learn about different types of rhyme, then this little book will be helpful. You can find the book in the library's reference collection with the call number PN 44.5 D4 1974b.