I have the sixth printing, first published in 1959. Part I "The Poetic Process" -- Poet, Reader, Sound Patterns, Imagery, Words, the Design. Part II - Poetry and the Human Condition -- Time, Death, Frustration and Loneliness, Satire, Nature, Love, Humanism, and Religion. Concludes with a chapter "Poets on Poetry". This book has an appendix on "Meters and Verse Patterns", and a List of the cited Poets indexed. ( )

2404 Poetry: A Modern Guide to Its Understanding and Enjoyment, by Elizabeth Drew (read 25 Aug 1991) This book was first published in 1959. I started out enjoying it very much, but it palled. It discusses many poems, but the poem which moved me most was Emily Bronte's "Cold in the Earth"--an old favorite of mine. I did not realize that it was written as part of the Gondal romance the Brontes played--all that emotion is not personal to Emily, but is part of their game! But it is still a fantastic poem--the author of this book says it has been called "one of the greatest personal lyrics in the language," and I agree. This book has an appendix on "Meters and Verse Patterns" which is condensed but valuable. ( )