The Shapes of Our Singing: A Comprehensive Guide to Verse Forms and Metres from around the World

In The Shapes of Our Singing, Robin Skelton presents all the major and most of the minor verse forms from the poetic traditions of the entire world. Skelton gives a synopsis and list of rules for each form, and brings each form to life with an original poem, making this not only an invaluable resource but a moving testament to the poetic impulse. Featuring over 300 verse forms, The Shapes of Our Singing is Robin Skelton's "magnus opus," the culmination of many years of research, study, and creative effort.

• The first-ever true global description of verse forms.
• Over 300 different forms described, demonstrated, and explained.
• Sample cultures covered in this book: Classical Greek & Latin, Italian, English, Czech, Cornish, Ethiopian, Irish, French, German, Hebrew, Javanese, Korean, Japanese, Latvian, Mongolian, Old Norse, Persian, Sanskrit, Swahili, Sumerian, Spanish, Welsh, Thai, and Yiddish.
• Full metrical explanations.
• Concise, easy to understand descriptions of the verse forms.
• Introduction, note on selection, and an explanation of terminology.

Robin Skelton

For Robin Skelton, poetry was a calling. He was famed internationally for his commitment to poetry and his mastery of poetic forms. Before his death in 1997, he published over 30 books of poetry, was a passionate anthologist and translator, author of four books of poetic theory and instruction, and was known as Canada's premier poetic craftsman. Skelton founded the Creative Writing Department at the University of Victoria, where he taught poetry, prosody, and publishing from 1963 until his retirement in 1990. He was a founding editor of The Malahat Review which under his stewardship, became one of the few prestigious and truly international literary magazines in the English speaking world.

Ordering Information

To purchase The Shapes of Our Singing by Robin Skelton, please contact our distributor, University Press of New England toll free at 1-800-421-1561 or by fax at 1-603-448-9729. The book is also available online at UPNE, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other fine retailers.

To request a copy for review, please contact the Carnegie Mellon University Press Editorial Offices at (412) 268-2861 or by email at CarnegieMellonUniversityPress@gmail.com.