Writing off the Subject Summary and Analysis

"The Triggering Town" is written by Richard Hugo with the intent of helping aspiring poets develop their own style of writing. In the course of the book Hugo shares with his readers some of his own personal writing techniques as well as some of the fundamentals of poetry writing that he picked up over his years as a poet. Hugo also writes about Thomas Reothke, the poetry teacher who most influenced both his writing and teaching. The point Hugo hopes to convey to his readers most strongly is that he cannot teach any student to write. The only way to learn to write, Hugo stresses in his book, is for students to practice writing and develop their own personal technique.

Hugo begins his work by telling his readers he hopes they learn to write with...