The basic rhymes in English are masculine, which is to say that the last syllable of the line is stressed: "lane" rhymes with "pain", but it also rhymes with "urbane" since the last syllable of "urbane" is stressed. "Lane" does not rhyme with "methane".

A poem with grandly conceived and executed stanzas, such as one of Keats's odes, should be like an enfilade of rooms in a palace: one proceeds, with eager anticipation, from room to room.

Imitation, if it is not forgery, is a fine thing. It stems from a generous impulse, and a realistic sense of what can and cannot be done.

At somewhere around 10 syllables, the English poetic line is at its most relaxed and manageable.

English poetry begins whenever we decide to say the modern English language begins, and it extends as far as we decide to say that the English language extends.

One problem we face comes from the lack of any agreed sense of how we should be working to train ourselves to write poetry.

The lullaby is the spell whereby the mother attempts to transform herself back from an ogre to a saint.