The Cambridge Guide to Reading Poetry

Andrew Hodgson is Lecturer in Romanticism at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of The Poetry of Clare, Hopkins, Thomas, and Gurney: Lyric Individualism (2020), has edited and introduced an edition of The Selected Poems of John Keats (2019) for the Macmillan Collector's Library and was involved in a consulting and editorial role on The Connell Short Guide to How to Read a Poem.

• Introduction: Reading Poetry; 1. Reading a Poem; 2. Studying a Poet; 3. Writing about Poetry; Epilogue: What Should You Read?; Glossary of Common Forms and Genres; Further Reading.

'One of the advantages this book will have over competitors in the field is that its tone and approach are grounded in practical experience of introducing challenging texts to readers who are relatively inexperienced with (and not a little afraid of) poetry. Andrew Hodgson's guide manages to make reading poetry continuously exciting without sacrificing difficulty. Consistently literary, it makes the literary available rather than austerely or arcanely remote. Above, all students will listen because the advice is presented without condescension as if from a writer addressing fellow-practitioners. I will certainly be recommending this book to my first-year close readers and I am sincerely heartened by the fact that, published by Cambridge University Press, it is set to become a standard text.' Josie Billington, University of Liverpool