Now including a more diverse range of voices by ethnicity, gender and sexuality, the third edition of The Poetry Toolkit introduces students to the key terms, concepts and genres they need to know to develop their critical appreciation of poetry in all its many forms. The new edition includes an expanded practical section giving guidance on close reading, comparative reading and advice on writing critically about poetry. In addition, the book is accompanied by a companion website offering audio recordings of poetry readings, weblinks and overviews of key theoretical approaches to support advanced study.
Matthew Oates has led a butterflying life. Naturalist, conservationist and passionate lover of poetry, he has devoted himself to these exalted creatures: to their observation, to singing their praises, and to ensuring their survival. Based on fifty years of detailed diaries, In Pursuit of Butterflies is the chronicle of this life. Oates leads the reader through a lifetime of butterflying, across the mountain tops, the peat bogs, sea cliffs, meadows, heaths, the chalk downs and great forests of the British Isles. Full of humour, zeal, digression, expertise and anecdote, this book provides a profound encounter with one of our great butterfly lovers, and with a half-century of butterflies in Britain.It is his infectious enthusiasm as much as his deep knowledge that makes the book so worthwhile ... He writes entrancingly, with the sunniest good humour. His book, with its old-school, almost loving erudition, is nature-writing of the sort that never goes out of fashion.