James Fenton's An Introduction to English Poetry offers a master class for both the reader and writer of poetry. Simply and elegantly written and discussing the work of poets as wide ranging as W. H. Auden, Dylan Thomas, Tennyson, Kipling, Milton and Blake, it covers all varieties of poetic practice in English.
'It is hard to imagine a beginner who could not learn from [this book]. If you know a young poet, give them this' The Times Literary Supplement
The history and scope of English poetry; where music and poetry divide; the training of the poet; the sense of form; the iambic pentameter; variations in the line; patterns of stress; mysteries of the trochee; the genius of the trochee; the shorter lines; the iambic tetrameter; the longer lines; the shorter stanza; the longer stanza; the sonnet; minor forms; rhyme; syllabics; free verse; writing for the eye; poetic drama and opera.
