Best Books on the Art of Reading Poetry

[Fifty]

So, anybody have any particular books about poetry (how to read it, its value, critical approaches, etc.) that they found awesome?

I'm very much enjoying Understanding Poetry by Brooks and Warren. I think a critical school which emphasizes close, careful reading is always a good place to start before moving to more broad-scope cultural studies style criticism.

 

[Agent327]

As a general rule I prefer close, careful reading to "broad-scope cultural studies style criticism" - that is, reading what other people have to say about poetry. I prefer a good complete edition over a critical review of such an edition, as I'm primarily concerned with poetry, not with poetry critics, which is another discipline (like literature and literary criticism - which however I do read, as I cannot possibly read all literature). But I imagine that Brooks and Warren cite other sources.