I have to admit: I didn’t complete all the poetry exercises in this book. I started with good intentions, but quickly realized I’m more interested — at least for now — in understanding how poetry works than in writing my own. And honestly, that’s okay. The exercises will be there if (or when) I circle back. What mattered most to me was learning how “good” poetry is constructed and how best to read it, especially out loud.
Dante Alighieri, or Dante to his friends, is probably best known for The Divine Comedy, an epic poem touring Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven. I feel like everyone has read Inferno, although I never had until now. But I never hear of anyone reading the other two. Whether it’s the epic-ness of it or the translation, I suggest pressing on. Robin Kirkpatrick’s translation is readable and mostly understandable, while maintaining the lyricality of Dante’s original poem.
The short introduction in this book states that Hopkins was considered unpublishable in his time. Time… hasn’t helped much.
