This latest edition retains the features that have made Introduction to the Poem a superb text from which to teach and learn. Bob Boynton and Maynard Mack's intent from the first has been to suggest ways of approaching a poem that will make it more understandable and enjoyable--to introduce students to the art of reading poetry. The authors readily admit that often a poem doesn't make immediate total sense. But a poem makes immediate rhythmic sense if it's read aloud, and meaning will come with increasing pleasure if the right approaches are taken - if, basically, a reader respects his or her native wit and lets the poem do its work. The approach of this book helps clarify what a poem is and does, and how a good reader reenacts the experience it offers.