26 Comments
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Francesca SingHer's avatar

This is so beyond the call of duty, even for a poet, even for a poet's poet. Even for a slave to the practice of poetry, even for the nerdiest of the slaves to form and function in poetry.

There aren't really enough words to thank you for pouring this resource onto the page. But one can try. THANK YOU for this generous offering. This is manna from heaven, a masterclass in one go. Amazing.

William Palmer's avatar

Shannan, this is deeply useful as a resource and guide. Thank you for all your hard, important work here.

Meg Freer's avatar

Wow, this is epic and comprehensive! Impressive amount of work, and great variety in the poetic excerpts too. I decided to try to read the whole thing in one shot, and by the time I got to the criticism section I was a bit foggy, so I'll have to revisit that bit separately another time.

P.S. Just go back and correct Longfellow's title! Maybe by that point you were getting a little foggy and "dreamy" yourself ...

Robin C. Rivero-Guisinga's avatar

Am sooo very late to this class, but won’t miss it for the world 🥹 thank you, Shannan!!!

Sasha's Life Lists's avatar

From one poet to another: THANK YOU I LOVE YOU BACK THIS IS INCREDIBLE!

Rajvi Mittal's avatar

This is print worthy. Brb - printer is running - grateful as much as possible! Thank you so much! 💖💖💖

margi cates's avatar

Damn, you really did your homework.

Thank you.

This is a wonderful resource, lots to chew on here.

Mark H. Spicknall's avatar

This is brilliant! Thank you so much for doing this. One small thing in the interest of the great precision here generally - the Japanese haiku is 5-7-5 morae, not syllables. And a crucial aspect of haiku not mentioned is the juxtaposition of two different things. Cheers.

Sam's avatar

As a new MFA student struggling with little understanding of theory… This is the exact resource I’ve been looking for. Thank you so much for this!😭👏🏻

j.h.kucher's avatar

OMG. UnFuckingBelievable. Five stars. Two Thumbs Up. You must be exhausted. Thank you!

Richard Ryal's avatar

This is an amazingly succinct, lucid guide through the bucket list for every devoted poet. Equally significant is that the examples here are from timeless classics, recent classics, and contemporary voices from the rebel alliance. You could set your clocks, compass, and thermometers by the precisely illustrative and provocative pieces for each category. It’s beyond what I’d hope for and Shannan Mann has put all this in easy reach. For poets, this is an engine for creative evolution the way an opposable thumb is for everything else.

Eleni D. Vlachos's avatar

This only took you two weeks?! Seems like it would take months. Thank you!

I like that "Volta" in Greek means walk, or stroll. Makes sense in the context of its meaning here.

Jasmin Soee's avatar

Hello, so happy to connect with you 🤍 I just subscribed to your content, and I hope you feel like subscribing to mine too 💌 xx

Robert Pineda's avatar

Great resource! Already learned so much and it’s just my first visit to the catalogue. I think I’ll try and use the word sibilance at work today 😈

Tara Mesalik MacMahon's avatar

this is an Amazing reference, especially I extra-loved including examples from such great poems to “show” us each term as we learn. I will keep and turn to this for always. I’m calling it my “Shannbook” (Shannan Handbook). Obviously so much time and care was put into creating this for us all. So grateful for you,Shannan.

Leonie Needham's avatar

It's 1 o'clock in the morning and this piece of work is magnificent. I can only agree with all the previous comments. Thank you for a wonderful resource.