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Poetry Magic is now closed.

The more important material has been moved to TextEtc.com.

Thanks for your past support!

 

Poetry Magic is resource centre for the theory and craft of writing poetry. As patrons will note, the site has been redesigned to allow for representative references to be added, and for articles to be shorter and more relevant. The previous extended, and sometimes difficult, articles have been updated and moved to TextEtc, and the focus on PoetryMagic returned to what was first intended: an introduction to poetry for students, amateurs and poetry lovers. What is poetry? How does it differ from prose? Why is poetry special, and so difficult to write? This site provides the answers to these and other vexing questions, plus a vast array of material to make your own poetry writing more compelling, authentic and relevant.

A Non-Partisan Guide

With over 70,000 words, Poetry Magic is a first port of call for many poets, aspiring poets and students of poetry. If the writing of poetry is the natural creative expression of the human psyche, it is also a craft, and nowadays something of an industry. PoetryMagic offers a balanced and informed view of how the literary world really operates — the key players, the competing groups, the aspirations and policies, the hype and the solid achievements.

Traditional and Avant-Garde

Poetry is now awash with new ideas. Not only in the top magazines will poets find references to deconstruction, intertextuality, hermeneutics, metaphor theory and other new critical terms. The issues raised are important, whether your own work is traditional or avant-garde. The advanced section offers helpful summaries, analyses and thought-provoking arguments — all presented as sensible advice for the working poet. Poetry Magic provides the bare bones of what you need to know, in digestible, easy-to-read form, plus the references to take your reading further.

Experience

Much of this material is not available elsewhere. C. John Holcombe was Chairman of one of the UK's longest-running poetry writing groups, and brings you a wealth of inside knowledge and practical experience. Poetry Magic is easily referenced by theme and topic, and there are links to selected Internet sources: writing resource centres, books on literary theory and practice, poetry online, and much else besides.

Poetry World

Contentious, changing, often at loggerheads with each other, the elements of the contemporary poetry scene take some sorting out, and no one ezine is going to cater for them all. Roses, for example, feature in many gardens, and articles on their selection, cultivation and care would find a place in popular gardening magazines. The professional gardener and garden centre would need something much more detailed and specialized, however, and would turn to nurserymen's catalogues and results of field testing. Different again would be the needs of market gardeners, where roses are grown under acres of glass, and the cut blooms air-freighted to distributors. And the description of a new species of rose recently discovered in the Caucasus would merit an academic article in the botanical press. Different needs, different readerships, different sorts of people.

PoetryMagic caters for the first group, and TextEtc more for the second. Professional associations of writers, and academic articles can be found in the references.

And Finally . . .

The site has been designed for optimal viewing at 600 x 800 screen size with later versions of MS Explorer.

The illustrations are not specific to the text, but simply add a little colour.

Do link to any page or pages on this site that interest you: you don't have to tell us.

Please don't send us your poems for review, publication or consideration. We haven't the resources to do justice to your work, and can only refer you to the many sites listed here and on Poetry Portal.

 

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