A Delightful Dictionary?

I didn't expect to enjoy Poetry Handbook A Dictionary of Terms by Babette Deutsch, but I did. 

It wasn't because the definitions were particularly enlightening, although they were, but because "By Way of Preface," and "A Word to the Beginner" were so beautifully done.  I don't agree with her that "the gulf between the lexicographer's [way with words] and the poet's way with them seems unbridgeable" because in two little chapters she managed to bridge the gap (Deutsch ix).

Deutsch said, "the theme and the way in which it is expressed , the meaning and the structure, cannot be separated without vital injury to the poem."  But because "the anatomy of verse is important to an understanding of poetry" she "anesthetizes the poem . . . lay[s] it on the table and examines" it(Deutsch ix).   Personifying her preface makes her imagery poetry.  How delightful.