For anyone who has ever wanted to become fluent in the language of poetry, Invitation to Poetry will prove an essential guide. This book:

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• Teaches the serious student how to ‘speak poetry’ through an in-depth examination of the traditional features and technical vocabulary of poetic language;
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• Examines British and American materials from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries in order to give students a sense of a range of different period styles, poetic projects, and strategies;
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• Explicitly examines, questions and challenges the relationship of poetry to literary periods and canons;
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• Offers the technical tools essential for close reading and interpretation across a broad chronological spectrum.
  

Lisa M. Steinman is the Kenan Professor of English and Humanities at Reed College. A practicing poet, she has also written two highly regarded books on poetry: Masters of Repetition: Poetry, Culture, and Work in Thomson, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Emerson (1998) and Made In America: Science, Technology, and American Modernist Poets (1989). Her work has been recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Rockefeller Foundation.