Despite the deep-seated notion that the archetypal American poet sings a solitary "Song of Myself," much of the most enduring American poetry has actually been preoccupied with friendship and its pleasures, contradictions, and discontents. Beautiful Enemies examines this obsession with the problems and paradoxes of friendship, tracing its eruption in the New American Poetry that emerges after the Second World War as a potent avant-garde movement. The book argues that a clash between friendship and nonconformity is central to postwar American poetry and its development. By focusing on of some of the most important and influential postmodernist American poets-the New York School poets John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and their close contemporary Amiri Baraka-the book offers a new interpretation of the peculiar dynamics of American avant-garde poetic communities and the role of the individual within them. At the same time, this study challenges both the reductive critiques of American individualism and the idealized, heavily biographical celebrations of literary camaraderie one finds in much critical discussion. Beautiful Enemies foregrounds a fundamental paradox: that at the heart of experimental American poetry pulses a commitment to individualism and dynamic movement that runs directly counter to an equally profound devotion to avant-garde collaboration and community. Delving into unmined archival evidence (including unpublished correspondence, poems, and drafts), the book demonstrates that this tense dialectic-between an aversion to conformity and a poetics of friendship-actually energizes postwar American poetry, drives the creation, meaning, and form of important poems, frames the interrelationships between certain key poets, and leaves contemporary writers with a complicated legacy to negotiate. Combining extensive readings of the poets with analysis of cultural, philosophical, and biographical contexts, Beautiful Enemies uncovers the collision between radical self-reliance and the siren call of the interpersonal at the core of twentieth-century American poetry

Undeniably one of the great poets, as this work shows, Cowper nevertheless sought inspiration using people and resources, often ruthlessly, to that end. He is shown to have had ultimately a highly defensive view of himself to enable him to work and live, paradoxically, on his own terms.

Even lovers of Dylan Thomas's poems are often puzzled by his habits of language, which sometimes take the form of unusual diction and unique perceptions. This study, on the hundredth anniversary of his birth, is a must-read for both Thomas's fans and newcomers interested in an introduction to his works and the unique sensibility that created them. Chapters are devoted to his poetic perspectives, ranging from the microscopic to the cosmic; his unusual perceptions of the world, which some critics have described as those of an almost altered reality; his diction, or working vocabulary; his penchant for refurbishing cliches; his hilarious sense of humor and linguistic playfulness; his development as a poet; and his concern for sound, often resulting in a lofty, at times Biblical, though secular, tone. In summary, the study fully explores the heart and mind behind the poems, and shows why his work will always remain in the top rank of English poetry.

Packed full of analysis and interpretation, historical background, discussions and commentaries, York Notes will help you get right to the heart of the text you're studying, whether it's poetry, a play or a novel. You'll learn all about the historical context of the piece; find detailed discussions of key passages and characters; learn interesting facts about the text; and discover structures, patterns and themes that you may never have known existed. In the Advanced Notes, specific sections on critical thinking, and advice on how to read critically yourself, enable you to engage with the text in new and different ways. Full glossaries, self-test questions and suggested reading lists will help you fully prepare for your exam, while internet links and references to film, TV, theatre and the arts combine to fully immerse you in your chosen text. York Notes offer an exciting and accessible key to your text, enabling you to develop your ideas and transform your studies!

Meng Haoran (689-740) was one of the most important poets of the "High Tang" period, the greatest age of Chinese poetry. In his own time he was famous for his poetry as well as for his distinctive personality. This is the first complete translation into any language of all his extant poetry. Includes original Chinese texts and English translation on facing pages.

In this study 'Art, Poetry and WW1, by Edward Lucue-Smith of writing, poetry and painting In the Centenary Year of the outbreak of the First World War the author considers the historical impact on the general psyche of the calamitous events, reflected in the expression of poets and visual artists. The volume includes Eric Kennington, CRW Nevinson, John Singer Sargent, William Orpen, Stanley Spencer and Paul Nash; and writers Siegfried Sassoon, Isaac Rosenberg, Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas and T.S. Eliot. In Europe the painters: Otto Dix, Max Beckman, Franz Marc, Gino Severini, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Ludwig Meidner. He establishes a continuity to the theme with reference to works by Velazquez, Watteau, Goya and others, in their treatment of the spectacle of battle and the horrors of human conflict.

The rediscovery in the fifteenth century of Lucretius' De rerum natura was a challenge to received ideas. The poem offered a vision of the creation of the universe, the origins and goals of human life, and the formation of the state, all without reference to divine intervention. It has been hailed in Stephen Greenblatt's best-selling book, The Swerve, as the poem that invented modernity. But how modern did early modern readers want to become? This collection of essays offers a series of case studies which demonstrate the sophisticated ways in which some readers might relate the poem to received ideas, assimilating Lucretius to theories of natural law and even natural theology, while others were at once attracted to Lucretius' subversiveness and driven to dissociate themselves from him. The volume presents a wide geographical range, from Florence and Venice to France, England, and Germany, and extends chronologically from Lucretius' contemporary audience to the European Enlightenment. It covers both major authors such as Montaigne and neglected figures such as Italian neo-Latin poets, and is the first book in the field to pay close attention to Lucretius' impact on political thought, both in philosophy - from Machiavelli, through Hobbes, to Rousseau - and in the topical spin put on the De rerum natura by translators in revolutionary England. It combines careful attention to material contexts of book production and distribution with close readings of particular interpretations and translations, to present a rich and nuanced profile of the mark made by a remarkable poem.

Conversations with Donald Hall offers a unique glimpse into the creative process of a major American poet, writer, editor, anthologist, and teacher. The volume probes in depth Hall's evolving views on poetry, poets, and the creative process over a period of more than sixty years. Donald Hall (1928-2018) reveals vivid, funny, and moving anecdotes about T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and the sculptor Henry Moore; he talks about his excitement on his return to New Hampshire and the joys of his marriage with Jane Kenyon; and he candidly discusses his loss and grief when Kenyon died in 1995 at the age of forty-seven. The thirteen interviews range from a detailed exploration of the composition of ""Ox Cart Man"" to the poems that make up Without, an almost unbearable poetry of grief that was written following Jane Kenyon's death. The book also follows Hall into old age, when he turned to essay writing and the reflections on aging that make up Essays after Eighty. This moving and insightful collection of interviews is crucial for anyone interested in poetry and the creative process, the techniques and achievements of modern American poetry, and the elusive psychology of creativity and loss.

Comic poetry is serious stuff, combining incongruity, satire and psychological effects to provide us a brief victory over reason that could help us save ourselves, if not the world. Taking a theoretical perspective, this book champions the literary movement of American comic poetry, providing historical context and exploring the work of such writers as Denise Duhamel, Campbell McGrath, Billy Collins, Thomas Lux and Tony Hoagland. The techniques of these poets are examined to reveal how they make us laugh while addressing important social concerns.