Non-Fiction

The Making of a Poem by Mark Strand & Eavan Boland
Introductory Statement
On Becoming a Poet by Mark Strand (p.xvii-xx)
I: Verse Forms - Overview (p.1-4)
The Villanelle (p.5-20)
The Ballad (p.73-98)
My reading of "On Becoming a Poet" was cut short because, quite frankly, I got bored. This isn't wholly the article's fault -- as mentioned previously, I'm struggling to get enough work done to finish (and, to be honest, start) an essay, which makes everything feel twice as long and ten times as frustrating -- but I'm not certain it's wholly my fault either... Certainly, I skipped the rest of the introductions (there are three in all, including the one-and-a-half I read) and jumped to more relevant sections.
Have discovered I find it very natural to write ballads -- at last, a form to latch on to for the rest of my work!