This manual closes a circle which began in 1954 with the beginning of work on a doctoral dissertation defended at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in April 1957 (published in Spanish in 1962). During three decades of teaching and writing the author has kept an active interest in poetics and stylistics and the resulting accumulated knowledge has been concentrated in the present manual. The primary purpose of the book is not to serve as a source of information about facts and authors but rather to initiate the reader into the stylistic analysis of poetry. Among the poetic techniques discussed are sound and sonority, rhythm, imagery, figures of speech, dialogue and monologue, development and composition.