This project considers the use of the term ‘abstract’ in the context of poetry, starting from the concept of ‘painterly abstraction’ outlined by Charles Altieri in his 1989 book Painterly Abstraction in Modernist American Poetry which posits a model of abstraction based on writings on abstraction in the visual arts. This thesis will contend that Altieri’s mode of abstraction, particularly its use of exemplarity, places limitations on its own readings, and it sets out to uncover the nature of these limitations and explore their ethical and heuristic consequences. It will draw on writing on abstraction by Gilles Deleuze to develop a theoretical framework that will put pressure on the key principles of Altieri’s abstraction in order to formulate a mode of reading that can engage responsively with a range of modern and contemporary poetry. This involves a close reading of Altieri’s texts, attending to the structure and evolution of the central concepts of agency and meaning. It situates his model of abstraction in the context of ideas about abstraction in poetry that preceded or were contemporaneous with its initial elaboration, while also considering his work in dialogue with writings on abstraction in contemporary poetics, art and philosophy that offer alternatives to his understanding of the concept, in an attempt to elaborate a supple and adaptable praxis of reading that is responsive to a range of contemporary poetry. This mode of reading will then guide studies of contemporary poetry by the American poet Peter Gizzi and the Scottish poet and translator Peter Manson, adapting its guiding abstractions in response to the materials and modes of meaning it finds in their work. Its praxis of reading will be guided throughout by an emphasis on abstractions as adaptable heuristic strategies rather than fixed conceptual frameworks.