In this book on craft, former U.S. poet laureate Robert Hass dismantles the idea of a poem down to its barest building blocks, from the one-line haiku to the villanelle and sonnet. Examining poems by Catullus and Allen Ginsberg, Issa and Czeslaw Milosz, among others, A Little Book of Form investigates the ancient roots of the poetic impulse, taking a wide-ranging look at the form and its creations.