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This original, illuminating, and sometimes quite funny poetry anthology is primarily concerned with a fundamental and familiar question: How can we tell good poetry from bad? To illustrate precisely why these 101 poems, many of them well-loved classics, are so accomplished and remarkable, the prize-winning poet, author, critic, and veteran teacher Snodgrass herein rewrites them—wrongly. De/Compositions tellingly presents these rewrites next to the originals—by poets ranging from William Shakespeare to William Stafford—and thus we can more fully appreciate the artistry of these astonishing poems word by word, line by line, stanza by stanza. This book will appeal to anyone studying the craft and/or creativity that good poems demand.
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Customer Reviews (4)

A great new way of studying poetry
In this book, Snodgrass rewrites ("decomposes") many well-known poems by famous poets. The trick is that he sets out to make them worse, to make the language snag where it should flow, to make the ideas general when they should be specific, and so forth. The result is humorous but also highly instructive. It's easy to enjoy some of the original versions of these poems (which are set alongside Snodgrass's decompositions for easy comparison), but it's sometimes hard to see why they're so good. Snodgrass's deliberately botched versions highlight the mistakes that the original poets didn't make, and the brilliance and clarity of the original lines leaps into much sharper focus as a result. The next time I teach an introductory poetry class, I intend to use this book with my students for this very reason. The book is divided into sections, each section followed by a brief commentary. You generally get each section's "point" after a handful of poems, though, and I think this book could have been substantially shorter, or included a bit more commentary and a bit fewer decomposed poems. Better too much of a good thing than too little, though, and I highly recommend this book.

A review of de/composed poetry
What you get with this book is an instructive education into the art of poetrycraft.Snodgrass has taken poems written by authors from Emily Dickinson to William Shakespeare and rewritten their work, essential removing the creative spark from these poems and making them dull and lifeless.In so doing, Snodgrass educates as to what makes the original shine.

As an example, Snodgrass takes the first stanza of William Blake's "The Tyger" and rewrites it (or, to use Snodgrass' expression "de/composes" it) from the usual striking variance of its original meter:

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

and into strict iambics:

O tyger, beast that burns so bring
In darkling forests of the night,
What godlike hand, what deathless eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

and then into anapests:

O tyger, you creature that's burning so bright.
In the threatening, darkening forests of night,
What hand of immortal, what diety's eye
Dare hope it could fashion thy feared symmetry?

In so doing, Snodgrass retains the original intent of the poet, but reveals how important word choice, rhythm, voice and meter and structure are to the poet.

A masterful piece of work that teaches without being "teachy."I highly recommend it!

A must-have title for any poet.
W. D. Snodgrass, De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Bad (Graywolf Press, 2001)

I figured, when I put this on reserve at the library, that Snodgrass was going to take poems from otherwise excellent (or, in some cases, overrated; it's about time a serious critic finally takes Emily Dickinson to task for every one of her poems being able to be sung to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas") poets and breaking down what went wrong in them. I was wrong, and what I got was far finer: Snodgrass rewrites 101 poems, taking out the things that make them brilliant and turning them into everything from mediocre sludge to hysterically bad self-parody. In doing so, he highlights what is so wonderful about so many excellent poems better than thousands of pages of explication could; two or three pages of explication at the end of each section is included for clarity and closing notes, to highlight a change or two, but otherwise, Snodgrass lets the poems and their deconstructions (also, the occasional rough draft from the original poet) speak for themselves.

I cannot overstate the importance of this book for the working poet. It should be required reading for everyone who's ever written a poem with any pretense to greatness, and for most, it should be on the short shelf of sacred reference books to which the poet will turn hundreds, maybe thousands, of times over the course of his career. No finer book on (or of) poetry crossed my desk this year; very few finer have ever crossed it. It makes my top five books of the year. *****

Enlightenment by way of evisceration
What a wonderful resource for students of poetry--whether discovering Dickinson for the first time, completing an MFA, or holding a Ph.D in literature and a full professorship.Snodgrass takes some of the most powerful poems in the English language, and eviscerates them.We are often left with hilariously or shamefully dull, clunky verse, that shows by negative example just what made the original so great.

This is not only a text for use in poetry classes, although the 101 "de/composed" poems are taken from Snodgrass's own work as a teacher.There's plenty of knowledge available to the casual reader in comparing the two versions of each poem and reading the accompanying discussion.That itself is a pleasure to read, direct, lucid, insightful, and often humorous.A definite five stars! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The First "Confessional" Poet
Snodgrass is considered the grand-daddy of "confessional poets" who would follow him: Lowell and Plath in particular.One can see this in "Heart's Needle," the rampant appeal toward subjective experience, the filter of the self being the arbiter of all values.If the reader is used to the searing verse of Lowell or Plath, than Snodgrass' poetry can seem a bit more tame and disappointing.He takes on more quotidian themes, which one would expect from a college professor, like the girls in his class slipping beyond his erotic reach.Compared to Plath's searing, existential dilemmas, this is tame stuff.Yet Heart's Needle is an interesting read.A new chapter was turned on the page of American poetry, and here is one of its markers.

Poetry Class
Although a biology major, I took a poetry class as an undergraduate in the early 1960s. Heart's Needle was on the reading list. I still treasure this book, and it sits on my-favorite-book shelf with about two dozen other superb books I have read over the last 45 years.

Wonderful!
One of my favorite books of poetry. Snodgrass' poems about his daughter are beautiful and heartbreaking.

Yes, but...
It's true that Heart's Needle is out of print, but it can still be found in Snodgrass's Selected Poems: 1957-1987.

good
Good poetry. Let it be noted, though, to writers in search of fame and immortality through their works, that this volume won the Pultizer Prize in 1960. And it's now out of print! And no readers had posted a review when I wrote this one. So much for the impact of literature. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

American Poetry At Large.
This wonderful book of poems brings together over three decades of poems by one of America's most powerful and dramatic poets, W.D. Snodgrass. I had the opportunity to meet Snodgrass a few years ago and the reading he gave was full of humor, depth, and vitality. Included in this volume or some poems from his Pulitzer Prize winning book, HEART'S NEEDLE, a collection of poems published in various periodicals, and the dramatic poems about Hitler's Third Reich. I especially enjoyed the poem's from "The Fuehrer Bunker". A delightful book to give to anyone who loves good American poetry. ... Read more

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The Perfect Introduction to a Unique Poet
For those unfamiliar with the poetry of W.D Snodgrass this significant volume will hold a bright candle to his genius.These poems are not only new works, but also poems selected from his fifty-year career of writing.His poems are at times creations of verbal and visual beauty while at other times they pick away at the other end of the spectrum of terror.He can be both hilarious and reflective, gentle and incisive, but he never leaves the reader without striking a chord of recognition. Yes, this is 'confessional poetry', but it strolls across the battlefields of Iraq, the petty crimes of our neighborhoods, and the dark sides of marriage and divorce with a tingling verve of style.

One of the beauties of this particular collection begins on the cover with a reproduction of a painting by American painter DeLoss McGraw.Snodgrass and McGraw have collaborated for some twenty tears in a body of works that successfully incorporate Snodgrass' words with McGraw's inimitable 'illustrative characters', paintings in watercolor and gouache that retain the innocence of childlike renderings of people and places and animals that underline the pungent messages of Snodgrass' poetry.

This is a beautifully produced book and by far the finest composite collections of his gifts yet published.Highly Recommended.Grady Harp, May 06 ... Read more

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Modern-day Roland seeks his poet
If ever a subject cried out for an epic poem it is that of the last days of the Fuehrer, whatever your feelings about him may be. Snodgrass' poem is brilliant and creative, but....the glory of April 1945 still seeks its singer. ... Read more

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In his first collection of essays on poetry in 27 years, W.D. Snodgrass goes after that seminal quality, the poet’s individual voice, that separates the best poetry from the merely technical and pedantic. Beginning with an essay on the poetic impulse, and continuing through prosody and musicality, Snodgrass gives us an essential handbook for poets and poetry readers.

Responsible for the emergence of American confessional poetry, W.D. Snodgrass won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his first book, Heart’s Needle. He lives with his wife, critic and translator Kathleen Snodgrass, in Erieville, New York, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

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Herbert Woodward Martin's body of poetry from the past five decades is, in many ways, matched by no one else. His many poetic voices range from quiet lyrics to angry protest poems, from groundbreaking counterpoint structures to prize-winning historical narratives. His wide-ranging poetry acts as a barometer of various times and tempers in American literature. His poetry is innovative and balanced and has a special way of working within traditions even as it creates its own unique space. Martin's poetry captures life in the Midwest through the authenticity of his voice, his dramatic sense, and the wonderful innovation of his multidisciplinary talents (poet, scholar, teacher, librettist, and performer). From his first volume of poetry in 1969 to "Inscribing My Name", Martin's work brings alive important issues and struggles in our understanding of what it means to be human. This accomplished body of work is a unique combination of traditional poetic forms, the African American musical tradition, and Martin's extensive experience creating and performing theater and opera. ... Read more

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