An illuminating look at the many forms of poetryâs essential excellence by James Longenbach, a writer with âan ear as subtle and assured as any American poet now writingâ (John Koethe)
âThis book proposes some of the virtues to which the next poem might aspire: boldness, change, compression, dilation, doubt, excess, inevitability, intimacy, otherness, particularity, restraint, shyness, surprise, and worldliness. The word âvirtueâ came to English from Latin, via Old French, and while it has acquired a moral valence, the word in its earliest uses gestured toward a magical or transcendental power, a power that might be embodied by any particular substance or act. With vices I am not concerned. Unlike the short-term history of taste, which is fueled by reprimand or correction, the history of art moves from achievement to achievement. Contemporary embodiments of poetryâs virtues abound, and only our devotion to a long history of excellence allows us to recognize them.â âfrom James Longenbachâs preface
The Virtues of Poetry is a resplendent and ultimately moving work of twelve interconnected essays, each of which describes the way in which a particular excellence is enacted in poetry. Longenbach closely reads poems by Shakespeare, Donne, Blake, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Pound, Bishop, and Ashbery (among others), sometimes exploring the ways in which these writers transmuted the material of their lives into art, and always emphasizing that the notions of excellence we derive from art are fluid, never fixed. Provocative, funny, and astute, The Virtues of Poetry is indispensable for readers, teachers, and writers. Longenbach reminds us that poetry delivers meaning in exacting ways, and that it is through its precision that we experience this artâs lasting virtues.
Categories:
- Literature & Fiction
- History & Criticism
- Genres & Styles
- Poetry
- Genres & Styles
- History & Criticism
Publisher : Graywolf Press
Author : Longenbach, James
Language : English
Published :2013-03-05
Number Of Pages : 192
Binding : Paperback
ISBN-10 : 1555976379
ISBN-13 : 9781555976378
Item weight : 0.5 lb
Dimensions : 0.6 in x 5.4 in x 8.1 in
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