Book Review: How to Read Poetry Like a Professor is solid, useful, practical. You won't go wrong with this one. That it's not the ideal Platonic archetype I've been seeking isn't Foster's fault. I've been looking for a basic introduction to reading poetry, and this ticks off most, though not all, of the boxes. My gentle fault-finding begins with the order in which the author presents his topics. Foster begins with the sounds of words (such as "those hard g and k sounds"). Although important, for me this is one of the more esoteric elements, I find it comes naturally to many readers and writers, and way too much is made of it when evaluating poetry. Next he turns to meter (y'know, iambic pentameter, etc.), also esoteric, somewhat of a lost art (though making a comeback), and not truly scintillating. While both subjects need to be addressed, I'd put them off till the end to not discourage faint-hearted readers. Maybe begin with the oral tradition, discuss slam poetry, and then after intriguing the reader move on to the more academic topics. I know my criticism is completely subjective, but I say this because I found the first half of How to Read Poetry Like a Professor slow-going and was ready to quit. The second half picked up and saved my read. In fairness, he does work hard at making the book as interesting and fun as possible. Another small critique is a certain lack of diversity in the examples provided, which I'll credit to trying to keep down the number of copyrights. When I read Foster's previous book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor, I found it good at the time, but since then it has seemed even better in retrospect -- always a good sign when a book gets better over time. Perhaps How to Read Poetry Like a Professor will have the same effect. [3★]
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