"Wordsworth was a man speaking to men. He had said so. One would need to know things --technical things-- about speech, about why and how rhythm worked, about selection of nouns and word order to explain how he could state with finality, so that the words for it were _his_ words --simple truths...
		She neither hears nor sees
		Rolled round in earth's diurnal course
		With rocks, and stones, and trees.
To name the whole earth with three nouns, that was authority. Rocks and stones and trees. Thr rhythm formed by the reiterated 'and.' And the one complex word among simple verbs, diurnal..."

(from A.S. Byatt Still Life pg. 16)

Here are some reference and general collection sources useful in unlocking the work of poets. More can be found by Subject Heading searches for 'poetics' and its Related Subjects (Poetry authorship, Rhyme, Rhythm, Stanzas, Versification).

1. Dictionaries 

 TITLE        The poet's dictionary : a handbook of prosody and poetic devices
                / William Packard.
 PUBLISHER    New York : Harper & Row, c1989.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN44.5 .P3 1989                


 TITLE        The New Princeton encyclopedia of poetry and poetics / Alex
                Preminger and T.V.F. Brogan, co-editors ; Frank J. Warnke, O.B.
                Hardison, Jr., and Earl Miner, associate editors.
 PUBLISHER    Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1993.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN1021 .N39 1993               


 TITLE        The new Princeton handbook of poetic terms / T.V.F. Brogan,
                editor.
 PUBLISHER    Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, 1994.
 Leyburn Library        PN1021 .N39 1994               


 TITLE        The Princeton handbook of poetic terms / Alex Preminger, editor ;
                Frank J. Warnke and O.B. Hardison, Jr., associate editors ;
                with a select reading list by T.V.F. Brogan.
 PUBLISHER    Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, c1986.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN1042 .P75 1986
2. Guides to explication
 AUTHOR       Martinez, Nancy C. (Nancy Conrad)
 TITLE        Guide to British poetry explication / Nancy C. Martinez and
                Joseph G.R. Martinez.
 PUBLISHER    Boston, Mass. : G.K. Hall, 1991-
 Leyburn-Reference      PR311 .M34 1991 v. 1           


 TITLE        Poetry explication : a checklist of interpretation since 1925 of
                British and American poems past and present / Joseph M. Kuntz,
                Nancy Conrad Martinez.
 EDITION      [3d ed.]
 PUBLISHER    Boston : G. K. Hall, c1980.
 Leyburn-Reference      PR502 .K82 1980
3. Handbooks
 TITLE        The Teachers & writers handbook of poetic forms / edited by Ron
                Padgett.
 PUBLISHER    New York, N.Y. : Teachers & Writers Collaborative, 1987.
 SUMMARY      A reference guide to various forms of poetry with entries
                arranged in alphabetical order. Each entry defines the form and
                gives its history, examples, and suggestions for usage.
 Leyburn-Reference      PN1042 .T43 1987               

 AUTHOR       Williams, Miller.
 TITLE        Patterns of poetry : an encyclopedia of forms / Miller Williams.
 PUBLISHER    Baton Rouge : Louisiana State University Press, c1986.
 Leyburn Library        PN1042 .W514 1986
4. Books about poetics
 AUTHOR       Collins, Christopher.
 TITLE        Reading the written image : verbal play, interpretation, and the
                roots of iconophobia / Christopher Collins.
 PUBLISHER    University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.
 Leyburn Library        PN1042 .G583 1991              


 AUTHOR       Parsons, Marnie.
 TITLE        Touch monkeys : nonsense strategies for reading twentieth-century
              poetry 
 PUBLISHER    Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1994.
 Leyburn Library        PN1042 .P37 1994               


 AUTHOR       Staiger, Emil, 1908-
 TITLE        Grundbegriffe der Poetik. English.
              Basic concepts of poetics / Emil Staiger ; translated by Janette
                C. Hudson and Luanne T. Frank ; edited by Marianne Burkhard and
                Luanne T. Frank ; with an introduction by Luanne T. Frank.
 PUBLISHER    University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press, c1991.
 Leyburn Library        PN1042 .S7613 1991