The Heavy Lifting: A Boy's Guide to Writing Poetry

by Jeffrey Burghauser

Overview

In The Heavy Lifting: A Boy's Guide to Writing Poetry, acclaimed poet and educator Jeffrey Burghauser not only makes a case for poetry-he makes a case for poetry's restoration to the prominence it once enjoyed among the manly arts. In short, pithy chapters, Burghauser guides the aspiring poet through the values, attitudes, and techniques required for a lifelong adventure in language. The Heavy Lifting is at once an instruction manual, a textbook, a manifesto, a piece of literary criticism, a polemic, a pep talk, and an anthology-a mélange recalling Ezra Pound's 1934 classic ABC of Reading. Find a comfortable place to sit, open this book, and meet one of our most dynamic teachers of poetry. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781943003792
Publisher:	New English Review Press dba Wrld Encounter Inst
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
Sales rank:	323,644
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Jeffrey Burghauser, "a master of highly structured, traditional forms of poetry" (Ivan Head, Quadrant) was born in 1980 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was raised in nearby Springfield. Educated at the State University of New York at Buffalo and at the University of Leeds (UK), his poems and translations have appeared in many journals, including The Asses of Parnassus, Ekstasis, Merion West, New English Review (where he's a Contributing Editor), Quadrant, and The Showbear Family Circus. He is the author of Real Poems (2019), Still Telling What is Told (2020), Understandings (2021), and Some of Their Tunes (2022).

Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION 13

1) TO THE ANXIOUS READER 15

2) QUOTED TEXTS 16

3) "A SIMULTANEOUS ORDER" 17

4) TO ALL THE BIG AND LITTLE BOYS 19

5) THE BRICKLAYER 24

6) COULD I TROUBLE YOU FOR A LIGHT? 26

7) MY DECISION TO EXCLUDE HIP-HOP 27

8) "THE VAIN SEARCH" 31

9) EDEN 32

10) ARTIST STATEMENT 34

11) THE ILLUSION OF DIFFICULTY 37

II. THE HEAVY LIFTING 39

12) PROSODY 41

13) ADDENDUM: ON DACTYLS 47

14) THE PROPER REGARD FOR THE PAST 48

15) FORM 51

16) (FORM, CONTINUED) ADAM HURT'S GOURD BANJO 53

17) (FORM, CONTINUED) BODY AND SOUL: FORM AND CONTENT 55

18) FORMALITY 56

19) "OFT CRUEL FIGHTS WELL PICTURED FORTH DO PLEASE" 63

20) "CRÆFT" 68

21) "MATERIALS FOR AN ART" 70

22) THE POINT OF POINTLESSNESS 71

23) THE DECLINE OF POETRY'S RESPECTABILITY 74

24) THREE ADDITIONAL QUOTES ON THE

HAZARDS OF KNOWING 94

25) (THE DECLINE OF POETRY'S RESPECTABILITY, CONTINUED) ACADEMIC SOPHISTICATION 95

26) (THE DECLINE OF POETRY'S RESPECTABILITY, CONTINUED) NAUGHTY BOY 96

27) AUTHENTICITY 97

28) SHLOMO CARLEBACH AND A.E. HOUSMAN 101

29) POWER 110

30) THE POWER OF RHYME 112

31) THE POWER OF WIT 118

32) AN ADDENDUM ON WIT 124

33) THE POWER OF TRUTH 129

34) ELABORATION 136

35) LOVE POEMS 144

36) (LOVE POEMS, CONTINUED) A LYRIC BY CAMPION 148

37) (LOVE POEMS, CONTINUED) NEED 153

38) (LOVE POEMS, CONTINUED) QUICHE 156

39) (LOVE POEMS, CONTINUED) "RUDE AM I IN MY SPEECH" 158

40) RHYMING DICTIONARIES 163

41) CHEATING 170

42) THE COMMONPLACE BOOK 172

43) POETRY AS PROCESS AND PRODUCT 181

44) END-STOP AND ENJAMBMENT 184

45) "BEAD-BROWN EYES" 187

46) AFTER SAPPHO 190

47) DEFERRAL 192

48) THREE RHETORICAL TEMPLATES FROM FULKE GREVILLE 194

49) IMPOSSIBLE THINGS 199

50) YOU CAN DO BETTER, THOMAS 202

51) INVERSION 204

52) A GAME OF CHICKEN 207

53) FEELING AND TECHNIQUE 213

54) JEWS, DOGS, AND FLAMES 229

55) PARADOX 232

56) SPECIFICITY 238

57) (SPECIFICITY, CONTINUED) "FOR ON HIS VISAGE WAS IN LITTLE DRAWN" 249

58) (SPECIFICITY, CONTINUED) TECHNIQUE OFFERS ITS OWN SPECIFICITY 250

III. CONCLUSION 253

59) IT IS AGAINST THIS WHICH WE ARE FIGHTING 255

60) I'LL MEET YOU THERE 257

61) "UPON A REVEALED PARADISE" 258

62) THERE'S NOTHING STRANGE ABOUT AN AFTERLIFE 259

63) NOISE OF TEARING 260

TEMPLATES 265

ANTHOLOGY 285

CODA 367

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 368

Editorial Reviews

Advance Praise for The Heavy Lifting: A Boy's Guide to Writing Poetry:

"In The Heavy Lifting, Jeffrey Burghauser reveals a knowledge of and love for poetry that is simply astonishing in its range and depth. And his commitment to communicating his passion for verse and his skill at stirring the interests of readers - especially his target audience of boys and young men who are, perhaps, least likely to be receptive to what poetry has to offer them (intellectually, emotionally, spiritually) - is truly admirable. This book will be invaluable for teachers of poetry and for all who are keen to learn and enjoy what it has to offer, not only in the classroom, but for life. Every page is an inspiration."

--Barry Spurr, Australia's first Professor of Poetry and Literary Editor of Quadrant.

Critical Praise for Jeffrey Burghauser's Poetry:

"I have really never come across a poet as consistently excellent as Burghauser. I bow to his genius, and, were I U.S. President, I should make him Poet Laureate."

-Alexander Waugh, author of The House of Wittgenstein: A Family at War and General Editor of The Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh

"Jeffrey Burghauser's poetry tackles the eternal questions with verbal, in-tellectual and emotional precision."

-Theodore Dalrymple, essayist and author of numerous books including Ramses: A Memoir

"Jeffrey Burghauser is a master of highly structured, traditional forms of poetry and he seems to inhabit the verse in a way that makes rhyme seem effortless. [...] Burghauser is among the most competent poets I have read in recent years, and among the most satisfying."

-Ivan Head, Quadrant

From the Publisher