Ben McKennaThe best way to start to start learning about poetry is to read as much about it as you can.
Here’s a list of our recommended ‘how to’ primers and textbooks:
Adrienne Rich, What Is Found There: Notebooks
Alfred Corn, A Poem’s Heartbeat
Anne Carson, Decreation: Poetry, Essays, Opera
Anne Stevenson, Five Looks at Elizabeth Bishop
Barbara Herrnstein Smith, A Study of How Poems End
Clare Brown & Don Paterson (eds), Don’t Ask Me What I Mean
Dennis O’Driscoll, Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney
Den Young, The Art of Recklessness
Don Paterson, 101 Sonnets
Durs Grünbein, The Vocation of Poetry
Fiona Sampson, Poetry Writing: The Expert Guide
Glyn Maxwell, On Poetry
Helen Ivory & George Szirtes (eds), In Their Own Words
Hayden Carruth, Effluences from the Sacred Caves
Jacqueline Saphra & David Orr, Beautiful and Pointless
James Fenton, An Introduction to English Poetry
James Fenton, The Strength of Poetry
James Longenbach, The Art of the Poetic Line
Jane Hirshfield, Nine Gates – Entering the Mind of Poetry
Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux, The Poet’s Companion
Kim Addonizio, Ordinary Genius
Lyn Hejinian, The Language of Inquiry
Mark Doty, The Art of Description: World Into Word
Mary Kinzie, A Poet’s Guide to Poetry, 2nd Edition (Chicago Guides)
Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook
Mary Oliver, Rules for the Dance
Mary Ruefle, Madness, Rack and Honey
Matthew Sweeney & John Hartley Williams, Write Poetry and Get It Published
Michael Donaghy, Wallflowers
Neil Astley And Bill Herbert and Matthew Hollis, Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern Poetry
Paul Muldoon, The End of the Poem
Peter Sansom, Writing Poems
Philip Levine, Don’t Ask and So Ask
Robin Behn and Chase Twitchell, The Practice of Poetry
Stephen Dobyns, Best Words, Best Order
Stephen Dobyns, Next Word, Better Word
Stephen Dunn, Walking Light
Stephen Fry, The Ode Less Travelled
Ted Hughes, Poetry in the Making
Ted Kooser, Poetry Home Repair Manual
Timothy Steele, All the Fun’s in How You Say a Thing
Tom Sleigh, Interview With A Ghost
Tony Hoagland, Real Sofistikashun
Tony Hoagland, Fear of Narrative and the Skittery Poem of Our Moment
W N Herbert, Writing Poetry
There is also a lot of poetry and information about poetry freely available online. You can’t go wrong by starting with Poetry Foundation and Poetry Archive.