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This book explores the art of poetry writing from a practice-based perspective, showing how form, trope and theory inform the practical craft of writing poems. It is divided into three key sections:

Form and structure, covering sonnets, ballads, blank verse and more

Trope and device, introducing topics such as irony, imagery and voice

Poetics and practice, which discusses the writing of poets such as Robert Frost, Amy Lowell and Frank O´Hara

Each chapter unpacks a particular concept or form, using examples to display it in practice. The book is filled with exercises to get you writing, and hints and tips for effective re-writing and for avoiding common pitfalls. Written by published poets, many of whom teach writing or literature, The Portable Poetry Workshop will push you to explore beyond your creative writing boundaries.

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Introduction.- SECTION I: FORM AND STRUCTURE 1. Varieties of The Sonnet; Nigel McLoughlin.- 2. Terza Rima; Martin Figura.- 3. The Villanelle; Siobhan Campbell.- 4. The Ballad; Paul Hardwick.- 5. Sestinas; Barbara Smith.- 6. The Ode; Tony Williams.- 7. Modern Syllabics; Claire Crowther.- 8. Blank Verse; Ros Barber.- 9. Vers Libre/Free Verse; Todd Swift.- 10. The Prose Poem; Carrie Etter.- 11. Taking Form: Experimental and Avant Garde Forms; Robert Sheppard.- 12. Spatial Form; Mario Petrucci.- SECTION II: TROPE AND DEVICE 13. Prosody; J. T. Welsch.- 14. Rhyme; Angela Topping.- 15. Simile; Andrea Holland.- 16. Metaphor; Nigel McLoughlin.- 17. How to Make a Woman Disappear: Extended Metaphor in ´Waiting for Bluebeard´; Helen Ivory.- 18. Irony is for Losers; Kevin Higgins.- 19. Dramatic Monologue; Barbara Smith.- 20. Humour in Poetry; Todd Swift.- 21. Imagery; Ashley Lister.- 22. Persona; Angela France .- 23. Voice; Andrea Holland.- 24. The Singing Within; Ann Drysdale.- SECTION III: POETICS AND PRACTICE 25. Gerard Manley Hopkins: Sprung Rhythm, Inscape & Instress; Nigel McLoughlin.- 26. Towards a Reading of ´The Mountain´ by Robert Frost; Siobhan Campbell.- 27. Amy Lowell: Common Sense Readings; Ashley Lister.- 28. Eliot and Pound: The Better Makers; Todd Swift.- 29. The Meaning of Meaning: William Empson; Claire Crowther.- 30. Gertrude Stein: Poetry & Grammar; J. T. Welsch.- 31. Charles Olson´s Projective Verse: The Breath and the Line; Kate North.- 32. Frank O´Hara: Personism; Barbara Smith.- 33. William Carlos Williams: Music and Machines; Susan Millar DuMars.- 34. Maurice Scully and the Avant Garde; Paul Perry.- 35. When is a Riddle not a Riddle?; Helen Ivory.- 36. Muriel Rukeyser: The Social Role of Poetry; Claire Crowther.

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Nigel McLoughlin is a poet whose work has been widely published over the last twenty years. His fifth collection, entitled Chora: New and Selected Poems, was published by Templar Poetry in 2009, and recordings of his work were selected for inclusion in The Poetry Archive. He is Professor of Creativity and Poetics at the University of Gloucestershire, UK.

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