The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

This is such a surprising book. I mean we all know that Fry is brilliant but who thought he could write perhaps the best college-level introduction to poetic form and effect? There are, yes, quite a few books about poetic form and effect but . . . this is not only the funniest, smartest, well-organized, and insightful one I've seen it's just flat out the best book of its kind. Fry is perhaps not well-served by his publisher . . . the book needs some development work here and there (basically just filling in bits and piece of information that Fry skips over, expanding the examples, and fleshing out the references) and the design, both of the cover and text should be reworked. The current interior and cover, at least in the US edition, are basically just splitting the difference between a serious textbook and a trade book but the book, and Fry, and students would be much better served by a interior design that formalizes the hierarchies of information in the text and is professionally typeset by a designer who is used to dealing with complex instructional texts. (Oh, I'm sure it's a bit of a hard sell to say "textbook" in a meeting about a book by Fry but there's no reason a good designer can't deal with the information design and make the design modern and lively.) The text is typeset perhaps slightly better than your average mid-list trade book but it is a complex text about, hello!, the English language . . . Fry's overall presentation is undercut by the everyday sloppiness of the typesetting and the attempt to squeeze an instructional text into a simpler standard non-fiction trade text design. Take a look at, say, a Princeton University Press title that covers similar ground and you'll see immediately that there are much better, more useful, ways of designing a book like Fry's. Likewise, thought a much easier problem to solve, the cover doesn't help position the book in the market. It's not a standard trade non-fiction book, it's a freaking genius and classic textbook that every college student should have at the ready. The cover doesn't have to be dry and boring, it can be wild and lively but . . . it needs to be a cover that looks like it belongs next to the CMS, a Fowler's, and a Webster's. Publisher! Hello! This book could, and should, have a long, long tail. There's no reason I can think of that the book can't be a _standard_ textbook for nearly every college student subjected to a class in poetry. It's not half as dry as the Turco book on poetic form and it's not as detailed as the Miller Williams but I suspect it could have a larger, more enthusiastic audience than either of those books . . . and both of those have gone through many editions. The Fry might be hard sell in a publishing meeting but I suspect it's much, much easier sale at, say, a college English department meeting. What adjunct English prof wouldn't leap at a chance to use a textbook that's a good excuse for watching a bunch of Youtube clips of Fry and Laurie? So, all of my complaints aside, this is a completely unexpected Five Star Book, easily the best available undergraduate introduction to poetic form and effect. Buy it. Read it. Laugh. Cry. Write poetry!

I LOVED this book. I am reasonably new to poetry, having only been reading and writing it extensively for a couple of years. I've looked on-line for "how to write better poetry", which is well worth doing, however, Stephen Fry takes all the results from all the google searches and condenses it down into a superbly ordered and explained treatise on why he likes poetry and how poetry is written, analysed and discussed. All of it told in an accessible, witty and fun way. Typical Fry. I have been hanging out with poets for years. I discuss their work, I discuss my own work, but we rarely, if ever, discuss meter. Most poets I know and talk to barely know what meter is... it's that thing that the high school teacher glazed over, because she didn't understand it herself and that was just one of the things on the curriculum that has to be taught on the way to sanitizing poetry out of the students (I generalize - that was my poetry experience. If you had better, I envy you!). Fry makes it front and centre. Poetry and meter are linked and understanding meter will make you a better poet. I believe this strongly. His overviews of the different types of rhyme (he has at least 4), poetry form and all his examples are lots of fun to read. I was particularly taken with the villanelle form, which Fry confessed, was the form that led to him writing this book in the first place. I borrowed this book from the library and took it on holiday with me. About half way through, I fought to get an internet connection and ordered a copy, which is now sitting in front of me. It is now my poetry reference and one I go to often.

Stephen Fry (yes, that Stephen Fry) takes a unique approach to teaching poetry-writing: rather than aiming to turn out writers of literature, Fry writes for the poetry-hobbyist, likening it to learning to paint for one's own enjoyment. I've thoroughly enjoyed the book, and the personal journey he took me on. Fry's step-by-step approach was very easy to follow.

Enjoying the book, but the exercises are actually quite hard. I don’t know why people call this an intro. If this were my first book on writing poetry, well I’d stop and never try again. The author just expects you to jump in and write 20 iambs. In ten minutes. Then in the next chapter, he asks you to write 10 couplets, 5 of them end stopped, and in perfect meter, with the next 5 sharing the same meaning as the first 5, but enjambed and with a caesuras in each line. It’s extremely hard. To the point of being hair wrenching. The latter exercise requires not just an understanding of meter, but also syntax to affect the requisite number of pauses. The author barely touches on technique, or offers any tips to perform these feats. Rather he blithely shows examples of caesura, makes some commentaries about how necessary it is and then throws this ridiculous exercise at you. Perhaps British people find this easier🤷‍♂️

One of my favorite quotes about poetry is from Dame Edith Sitwell. "Poetry is like horticulture," she said. "Each poem should be allowed to grow according to its natural form." In his new book, "The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within," Stephen Fry creates a veritable topiary garden of poetry, providing not only an encyclopedic overview of poetic meters and forms in English but a cogent, bracing and witty demonstration of their value. As its subtitle suggests, "The Ode Less Travelled" is written as a primer to both beginning and experienced poets who need, shall we say, a jump start to their creativity. Each chapter offers a discussion, with examples, of a particular meter, rhyme scheme or form, and suggests exercises at the end for readers to create their own examples. Fry quotes English poets from William Shakespeare to William McGonagall to illustrate his points, as well as a gratifyingly large array of American poets. Sometimes, when an example from the canon is not readily available, Fry will write his own, such as when he illustrates a dactyl (one stressed syllable, two non-stressed) followed by a molossus (three sharply stressed syllables in a row) in an imagined argument between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader: Why do you bother me? Go to Hell! I am your destiny. Can't you tell? You're not my father. Eat my shorts! Come to the dark side. Feel the force! Fry--a renowned writer, actor, director, wit and polymath--brings all his Cambridge erudition to "The Ode Less Travelled," combined with the passion of a man who cares to the depth of his soul about language and his possibilities. By learning as much as possible about the meters and forms available to us as poets in English, he argues, we gain insight into the sheer potential of the English language. That is a lesson that has importance far beyond the realm of poetry. In one of the book's closing chapters, he expounds on what he calls the flexibility of English, compared with other languages: "(I)t is more than a question of the thousands more words available to us, it is also a question of the numberless styles, modes, jargons and slangs we have recourse to. If by poetry we mean something more than the decorative, noble and refined, then English is a perfect language for poetry. So be alert to it at all times." Hear, hear!

I can't believe this was the first book on poetic craft that I read, but am so thankful to have come across this one first. It is laugh-out-loud funny, but also extremely generous to readers / aspiring poets. It's a book to come back to again and again. Fry isn't shy about his opinions of poets and poetic forms. His frank assessments are very useful to a beginner poet, and it's a book that I own in both paperback and in Kindle for ready accessibility. After this book I read the incomparable Ben Lerner's Hatred of Poetry, which also has been formative in my thinking of craft and the poetic endeavor. Mary Oliver's books on craft are also highly recommended. Still, I'm glad I came across Fry's first.

Absolute fun to read this book. Stephen Fry is a great coach and his writing style makes this such an engrossing read for someone who loves the poetry form and wishes to delve into writing poetry!

I never read that much poetry, maybe because, like a lot of others I remember being made to read it in school and it seemed dry, boring and irrelevant. School textbooks and lessons seem to have a way of kicking all the life and energy out of literature no matter how good or influential it is. So to me this book was a kind of antidote to that. Stephen Fry has written a charming and entertaining book on poetry and how it works. It's a fun read and it is also a serious book about poetic devices and techniques. He explains in detail the principles of rhyme and meter, gives examples and challenges the reader to try it for themselves which was and fun and instructive. His tone in the book is very direct and it has the feeling that he's talking to you personally. Like listening to a clever friend sharing their expertise with you. Lots of examples included with some commentary from the author. I never really understood meter in poetry before and now I'm reading it in a new way. And I'm enjoying it. I highly recommend this entertaining sometimes challenging book.

Seul bémol: je prête souvent ce livrée et les gens ne le rendent pas! Je ne sais pas combien j'en ai déjà acheté.

A lovely book that makes writing your own poetry even more fun! Recommended!

Excelente producto para entender la poesía en inglés desde sus fundamentos.

I never really understood poetry. And then, in the first pages of "The Ode Less Travelled" these 3 Golden Rules just changed the way i viewed poetry. Allowing me to truly appreciated it. And that was literally before the book even started. In the "The Ode Less Travelled" one learns how to write poetry. Or in my case, how to read poetry, for i have no intention to write it. English is not even my first language, and yet I've read 300 and so pages that talk about iambic pentameters, and sonnets, and villanelles, etc. And all because this book was amazingly written, Stephen Fry is so funny, I just loved this book! It was truly a fun informative read! I even did the poetry exercises (Which didn't turned out great, not the book's fault though). So I guess "The Ode Less Travelled" did Unlock the Poet Within, for better or for worse....

Want to be a better poet ?Then DO the exercises from the book. The villanelle exercise was great. I read my first villanelle at a poetry webinar . I got complemented on my ability to master tough forms. What a rush. This book will make you a better poet whether you are a tyro or have some experience