Originally published: 1998.

Theory -- Accent and duration -- Syntax and line -- Technical terms and vocal realities -- Like and unlike sounds -- Blank verse and free verse.

This work discusses why how a poem sounds when it is spoken is as important as what it says; includes information on how accent, duration, and syntax affect a poem. In it the author presents a manual of proposals on how to read poems, or, more accurately, how to "hear more of what is going on in poems." That distinction, in his view, is vital. He draws on dozens of poems to show how poets use the "technology", the sounds, of poetry to create works of art that are performed in us when we read them aloud.