The Art and Craft of Poetry

Michael J. Bugeja

Bugeja gets the first Gentleman's C I have ever given a book. I didn't even make the fifty-page mark with this turkey, quitting twenty-seven pages in, because Bugeja broke the cardinal rule of poetry in a flagrant and offensive way; while discussing a poem he uses as an example, he writes, “…but none of this is important; the only thing that is is what was in [the author]'s head at the time.” This is, as any poet half worth his salt knows, not only untrue, but offensive in the extreme. If this is the kind of thing which poetry 101 classes are being fed today, it's no wonder the world is so crammed with people who write bad poetry (one rejects the idea of calling them poets).

So why am I giving it the Gentleman's C? Well, because judging from the earlier writings here, when Bugeja isn't flaunting the idea that reader interpretation is meaningless and unimportant, he does have a few things to say worth reading. Also, the book can double as an anthology of poetry stretching from Shakespeare to modern times, and it has some value in that regard. As a teaching tool, though, readers are advised to stay far away until they fully understand that reader interpretation is not only valid, but as valid as author interpretation, of any poem, so as not to be poisoned by such irresponsible statements on the author's part.