Rules for the Dance: a Handbook for Writing and Reading Metrical Verse by Mary Oliver. 1998 Mariner Books, second printing, 194 pages. Mary Oliver was a Pulitzer and National Book Award winning prolific poet who was greatly inspired by nature. Her career in poetry was unusual in that her books actually sold well. In her New York Times obituary: "For her abiding communion with nature, Ms. Oliver was often compared to Walt Whitman and Robert Frost. For her quiet, measured observations, and for her fiercely private personal mien (she gave many readings but few interviews, saying she wanted her work to speak for itself), she was likened to Emily Dickinson." Here Oliver clearly instructs on metrical poetry and includes fifty poems in English as representation. Condition: VG "The metrical poem is a pattern made with sound just as much as it is a statement made through sound."
