Authors

Laurence Perrine, the original author of the series, worked alone from the first edition’s publication in 1956 until 1982, when Thomas R. Arp joined him on the project. After Perrine's death, Arp became the sole author of the series. Arp continued as sole author until he was joined by Greg Johnson in 1997. All three writers possessed both writing and scholarly credentials prior to working on the project.

Title

The title of the series was originally taken from Alexander Pope’s poem of the same name, which is, in turn, an excerpt from Pope’s longer poem “Essay on Criticism.” This title was amended after the death of original author Laurence Perrine to “Perrine’s Sound and Sense.” Cengage Learning, the publisher of the series, also publishes “Perrine’s Story and Structure” and “Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense.”

Instruction

The book is laid out as a full course in poetry. It teaches by direct instruction and examples. It begins with a definition of poetry, then moves to elements such as connotation and denotation, imagery, figurative language, allusions and tone. The book introduces the “sound” elements of poetry and their contributions to meaning. Illustrative poems from different eras, with guiding questions and exercises, follow each concept.

Appreciation

The final chapter or chapters of Part One, depending on the edition, discuss the evaluation of poetry. Perrine describes this as requiring examination of two elements of the poem: perfection and significance. There is room left, however, for the role personal taste can play, as some editions state, “Enthusiasm for the second-rate is much better than false enthusiasm or no enthusiasm at all.”

Changes

Over the years, each new edition has placed more current poems next to the traditional favorites of scholoars like William Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Robert Blake. One notable change to the structure of the book is that earlier editions had only two parts, one on the elements of poetry, and one of additional reccomended poems. Between the two original sections, later editions of the book insert a section on writing about poetry.