Poetry Magazine, A Review by Andrena Zawinski; Annie Finch & Varnes: AN EXALTATION OF FORMS, Fall 2003

Poetry Magazine

Books-in-Brief
A Short Review 
by Andrena Zawinski

Annie Finch & 
Kathrine Varnes, Eds.:  
AN EXALTATION OF FORMS:
Contemporary Poets Celebrate the 
Diversity of Their Art, The University
of Michigan Press, 2002, 
ISBN 0-472-06725-7, 442 pages.

Here’s the poet’s desk reference and a teacher’s guide that satisfies from the aesthetic to the utilitarian at once. It’s not the run-of-the-mill erudition lauding form; nor is it a testimonial to the internal workings of the finely-tuned poetic machine, although it doesn't skimp on either count. It is a substantial tome in which fifty contemporary poets put rhyme and reason in a framework (of description, history, examples) with a range wide enough to satisfy the established academic gymnastics of a villanelle to emergent forms of pop
culture in the metrics of rap. So whether it is scansion or flow you are after, this is an accessible treatise to form with its many and exceptionally beautiful faces--a text deserving a long look.