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!

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 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.

Very much enjoying this book, which provides a nice mix of description, explanation, and participation. However there are serious problems with the Kindle version.The text of the book is littered with extracts from poems which are marked up with stress marks, etc., and many of these are simply impossible to see on the Kindle. On some, the magnifier pops up on long-press in the usual way, but on more, it does not, and they are illegible.In such a book, with so many of these details appearing as images, even if they all worked this would probably still be annoying, but as it is, it makes the book less than useful. I have ordered the paperback version, but rather resent the extra expense.

Not having a TV I never realised what a clever, witty man Stephen Fry was until I started reading this book. He also seems exceptionally nice and certainly knows exactly how to engage a student's attention. I am thoroughly enjoying learning and working my way through the exercises, despite having quite a lot of other things to do with my time. It has become my - often daily - indulgence, and as well as being an excellent, extremely amusing read, it is a brilliant way to shut out the rest of the world.

Read this twice now. It's brilliant. The teaching profession's loss is a comedy panel show's gain. National treasure Stephen Fry takes you humourously and modestly through his voluminous knowledge of poetry. He's never condescending or presumptive about prior knowledge. There are exercises to complete, should you feel inclined, and loads of examples that illustrate his lessons. The hook in this book, however is Fry's enthusiasm which is as contagious as the French Pox that most of his poetic heroes probably carried. A thoroughly enjoyable and informative read you can dip back into time and again, whether you write poetry or not.

I bought this because I'm doing a course on Creative Writing at the Open University and the section on poetry in the course book wasn't really stimulating. In the Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry writes entertainingly and is very funny in places. This provides welcome light relief whilst one is trying to understand the complexities of the different forms of poetic metre. Although I can't claim to understand everything Stephen Fry says in the book, I find his clear explanation of the basic metres very helpful - it's always useful to know when it's OK to insert a trochee into a line of iambic pentameter. There are plenty of examples to illustrate his points. For instance when Shakespeare wrote: To be or not to be, that is the question (iambic pentameter but 11 syllables in the line) Stephen provides an analysis and explanation as to why Shakespeare got it right and how the line should be read correctly. Excellent stuff. I don't think I'll ever become a good poet, but at least I now appreciate the subtleties of writing good poetry.A word of warning - if you like your poetry to be unstructured and without rules, this may not be the best book for you. Stephen Fry errs on the side of traditionalism.

I loved poetry at school. We were taught 'to learn and understand by ear'. Not being taught at least some of the rules, left us all, at a distinct disadvantage.Now many years later I am reveling in poetry again and writing again.This book is excellent thus far. It gives a simple, rendition of the various techniques. I can't wait to try them.Some of the old poetry he quotes, jogs my memory and I remember the instantaneous joy I felt, when I first read them.It's well written and funny. I love Stephen Fry.