Formerly The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms, this newly updated version contains over 1,600 entries on the devices, techniques, history, theory, and terminology of poetry from the Classical period to the present. To bring it up-to-date, the authors have added fifty new entries and examples. The Dictionary of Poetic Terms is compact enough for classroom use, but thorough enough to be the definitive reference handbook for poets and scholars, and the many writers who are both.

“The liveliest, most imaginative and most comprehensive handbook of poetry available. . . . Most important for students, the Dictionary of Poetic Terms cuts closest to the bone of contemporary poetry.”--T.V.F. Brogan, Editor, The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

"A remarkably useful book for poets, for students (and for their professors too) and for libraries."--James Laughlin, poet and publisher of New Directions

“[The Dictionary is] the most extensive and all-inclusive reference work of its kind. The Dictionary . . . in its swoop and scope ranges from ancient Greek to contemporary American poetic practice and takes its examples from the long dead to the still living and quite young. The essay entries... are little gems.”—Laurence Perrine, author of Sound and Sense

Jack Myers (Poet Laureate 2003 of Texas) is director of the creative writing program at Southern Methodist University and also teaches in the Vermont College MFA Program in Writing. One of his numerous poetry books, As Long As You're Happy, was selected for the National Poetry Series by Seamus Heaney. He lives in Mesquite, Texas.

Don C. Wukasch , M.D., lives in Houston, where he practiced medicine for twenty-five years. He holds an MFA from Vermont College and has published poems in many journals.