[mosimage} As Robert Frost once said, "Poetry without rules is like a tennis match without a net." In this splendid and playful volume, acclaimed poetry anthologist Paul Janeczko and Caldecott Honor illustrator Chris Raschka present lively examples of twenty-nine poetic forms, illuminating not only the (sometimes bendable) rules of poetry, but also the spirit that brings these forms so wonderfully to life.

From roundels to villanelles, acrostics to epitaphs, sonnets to cinquains, Janeczko’s poetic reference book clearly explains and amusingly illustrates a range of verse forms, from the common to the more unusual and complex. Each genre occupies up a single large-format page, with a light-hearted, amusing exemplar standing alongside a brief, unthreatening definition. Writers chosen include canonical figures such as Lear, Blake and Shakespeare, alongside

 a range of contemporary American poets, offering a welcome insight into the wider world of verse in English. Throughout, Chris Raschka’s exuberant print illustrations add dynamism and colour as they burst across the page, and a small image in the top corner seeks to capture the essence of each form pictorially.

Although aimed at young readers and writers (there is a page of brief tips on how to ‘write your own!’), the technicality of many of the forms and the self-referential nature of much of the verse might leave them cold. I could see the book being used more usefully as a reference for teachers, providing a quick, accessible and enjoyable guide to the range of poetic forms one might explore the classroom.

2009-06-14