Listening to poets read their work focuses critical attention on the craft of the poem, while raising questions about the relationship between social history, technology, and the poet's "voice." "Recorded Poetry and Poetic Reception from Edna Millay to the Circle of Robert Lowell" offers an analysis of a wide range of recordings, from commercial and amateur, to official studio sessions, to ephemeral events captured on reel-to-reel tape. Through the mid-century performances of poets such as Elizabeth Bishop, Dylan Thomas and Anne Sexton, Derek Furr draws penetrating new conclusions about how and why poetry was recorded in the U.S. from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Nelly Sachs. The Poetics of Silence and the Limits of Representation examines the poetry of the Nobel Prize-winning German Jewish poet Nelly Sachs. It firstly shifts established patterns of reception by analysing the author's reception in East and West Germany after the war and the role she came to play in the Federal Republic as a representative 'Poet of Reconciliation'. The study then situates Sachs' work within the framework of the debate surrounding the representation of the Holocaust by means of a thorough exposition of the aporia at the heart of Theodor Adorno's writings on post-Holocaust art. It demonstrates by close reading how Sachs' work is itself marked by this aporetic struggle and exposes in particular the aesthetic means by which Sachs renders this aporetic tension legible in her poetry through her use of, for example, prosopopoeia, her recasting of traditional metaphors and her reversal of biblical archetypes. The primary question addressed is whether Sachs' poetry, in spite of the fact that it thematises the impossibility of adequate representation, has representational value, or whether her work is bereft of concrete, representational meaning as a result of the often fragmented nature of her writing. In particular, the author confronts those critics who see in Sachs' work elements of consolation, reconciliation, or redemption in a transcendental realm, in favour of a reading that regards her work as permeated with the concrete events of the Holocaust and irreconcilably opposed to any notion of a religious sense-making and redemptive paradigm.

Long ago I A Richards remarked that if we are to understand the Imagination, we have to understand how the brain works. Scientists have begun to approach this deep and complex problem in ways that we can not ignore. Coleridge's ideas on the subject belong to another age, but he had the knack of raising questions and performing thought experiments which are still relevant. This book explores the questions and discoveries raised both by Coleridge and by recent scientific research in order to offer fresh and original approaches to the reading of poetry and in particular the reading of Coleridge's major poems, The Ancyent Marinere, Kubla Khan and Christabel. This book offers an interpretation of the role of Imagination in the development of the human consciousness and the vital role poetry plays in our engagement with the world.

"Philip Larkin, one of England's greatest and most popular twentieth-century poets, is nonetheless widely regarded as a misanthropic, provincial recluse. This volume re-examines that critical view and argues that Larkin's poetry, far from demonstrating his misanthropy, highlights his profound awareness of and concern for readers"--Provided by publisher.

Today's Latino poetry scene is bursting at the seams. While Latino poetry has played an important role in establishing Latino letters, surprisingly only a few scholars have spent time analyzing its form. The first of its kind, Formal Matters in Contemporary Latino Poetry pulls back the curtain on how the poets Julia Alvarez, Rhina Espaillat, Rafael Campo, and C. Dale Young use formal structures such as meter, rhyme, and line break to affect our perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about the world we inhabit. With original interviews, this imaginative book explores how these poets add something to reality with their creations.

This study explores the Stuart history play, a genre often viewed as an inferior or degenerate version of the exemplary Elizabethan dramatic form. Writing in the shadow of Marlowe and Shakespeare, Stuart playwrights have traditionally been evaluated through the aesthetic assumptions and political concerns of the sixteenth century. Ivo Kamps's study traces the development of Jacobean drama in the radically changed literary and political environment of the seventeenth century. He shows how historiographical developments in this period materially affected the structure of the history play. As audiences became increasingly skeptical of the comparatively simple teleological narratives of the Tudor era, a demand for new ways of staging history emerged. Kamps demonstrates how Stuart drama capitalized on this new awareness of historical narrative to undermine inherited forms of literary and political authority. Historiography and ideology in Stuart drama is the first sustained attempt to account for a neglected genre, and a sophisticated reading of the relationship between literature, history, and political power.

Emily Dickinson's Rich Conversation: Poetry, Philosophy, Science is a comprehensive account of Emily Dickinson's aesthetic and intellectual life. Through her letters and poems, Richard E. Brantley identifies Dickinson's dialogue with John Locke's rational empiricism, Charles Darwin's evolutionary biology, Wordsworth's 'natural methodism, ' Ralph Waldo Emerson's idealism, and European and American intellectual traditions. Contrary to the image of the isolated poet, this ambitious study reveals Dickinson's agile mind developing through conversation with a community of contemporaries.

In a unique collection of essays devoted to one of America's most significant twentieth-century poets, a group of international contributors considers the Transatlantic nature of Stevens' poetry, providing original accounts of how a poet wary of 'influence' created a poetics which continues to haunt contermporary verse.

Eliot is the rare case of a great poet who was also an academic philosopher. Donald Childs' study examines the relationship between Elliot's writing of poetry and his philosophical pursuits, in particular his lifelong occupation with the work of F.H. Bradley, Henri Bergson, and William James. This account also considers the reception of Eliot's writing in philosophy and argues that the study of this work has significantly entered recent Eliot criticism. Overall, this volume provides a new reading of Eliot's famous poems, his literary criticism, and social commentary.

The conception happened on March 1 2005. The moment he realized he was pregnant with knowledge he ran to a piece of paper and used a red ink pen to see the results. After fifteen minutes J.L. Kirkwood realized that not only was he about to be a parent, he was about to give birth to words. He had morning sickness trying to figure out a way to bring poetry into the communities. He wanted to marry spoken word and bring written word into your living room. He wanted to give life to a book that would be thought provoking and timeless. A book that would bring about change. A concept that would create a balance between love and hate, trust and pain. He struggles with growth but admits his flaws and battles with the forces of darkness to become a better man. And after months of labor pains he finally gives birth to a healthy newborn. French Kiss, The Art To Poetic Lovemaking.The Masterpiece The most controversial poet in Hip-Hop explains his side....... J.L. Kirkwood has more than raised my love for Spoken Word artistry, he has also raised the bar for the art itself... His ability to bring life, and passion through the art of poetry has made me to label him, The Quintessential Spoken Word Genius!!!! "French Kiss deserves praise." -Chicago's #1 radio station WGCI personality Chris Michaels- J.L. Kirkwood Proves that success is in the Journey, not the destination. -BET Comicview Darius Bradford- "French Kiss is true and indeed a Masterpiece for the literary world.....His fine craft and smooth delivery sort of wakes you up and leaves everlasting thoughts on your mind for the rest of the day." -Soul Purpose Reviews- "J.L. Kirkwood uses a pen as a paintbrush to draw his almost scary real worlddepicted images of his triumphs and regrets. French Kiss exposes the open wound in our communities that only our efforts can heal" -CEO, Executive Director of Peace Journey..Jeannette Kravitz

This book deals with editing Yeats' poems and is a companion to the revised edition of W.B.Yeats "The Poems - A New Edition". It outlines the complex problems facing an editor of Yeats' poetry and explains the solutions adopted in the new text. Manuscript materials are drawn on extensively, including some which have recently come to light in the Scribner archives at the Univeristy of Texas and at Princeton University. Compared with the first edition of this volume, there is an additional chapter on the order of the poems as well as new information on the Scribner edition and other revisions throughout.;Richard Finneran is the editor of "Yeats: An Annual of Critical and Textual Studies".

Although haiku is well known throughout the world, few outside Japan are familiar with its precursor, haikai (comic linked verse). Fewer still are aware of the role played by the Chinese Daoist classics in turning haikai into a respected literary art form. Basho and the Dao examines the haikai poets' adaptation of Daoist classics, particularly the Zhuangzi, in the seventeenth century and the eventual transformation of haikai from frivolous verse to high poetry. The author analyzes haikai's encounter with the Zhuangzi through its intertextual relations with the works of Basho and other major haikai poets, and also the nature and characteristics of haikai that sustained the Zhuangzi's relevance to haikai poetic construction. She demonstrates how the haikai poets' interest in this Daoist work was rooted in the intersection of deconstructing and reconstructing the classical Japanese poetic tradition. Well versed in both Chinese and Japanese scholarship, Qiu explores the significance of Daoist ideas in Basho's and others' conceptions of haikai. Her method involves an extensive hermeneutic reading of haikai texts, an in-depth analysis of the connection between Chinese and Japanese poetic terminology, and a comparison of Daoist traits in both traditions. The result is a penetrating study of key ideas that have been instrumental in defining and rediscovering the poetic essence of haikai verse. Basho and the Dao adds to an increasingly vibrant area of academic inquiry - the complex literary and cultural relations between Japan and China in the early modern era. Researchers and students of East Asian literature, philosophy, and cultural criticism will find this book a valuable contribution to cross-cultural literary studies and comparative aesthetics.

The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory is the most comprehensive collection of poetry from the period ever published. Included are generous selections from the work of all major poets, and a representation of the work of virtually every poet of significance, from Thomas Ashe at the beginning of the era to Charlotte Mew at its end. The work of Victorian women poets features very prominently, with extensive selections not only from canonical poets such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti, but also from poets such as Augusta Webster for which high claims have recently been made by critics. The anthology reflects (and will contribute to) the ongoing reassessment of the canon that is central to English Studies today; in all, sixty-six poets are represented. The editors have included complete works wherever feasible - including the complete texts of Tennyson's In Memoriam and of a number of other long poems. A headnote by the editors introduces the work of each poet, and each selection has been newly annotated. The inclusion of twenty-five selections of the poetic theory from the period is an important feature rounding out the anthology. This anthology is also available in a concise edition.

At the center of Hardy's aesthetic practice is the recognition of desire as a necessary and fundamental condition of human existence. Yearning, disappointment, frustration and loss determine the relationship of his characters and poetic personae to the world and the systems in which their sense of self is expressed and constituted. Yet his work also explores the positive, dynamic and productive dimension of desire. Structured around the themes of home and homelessness; eroticism; Poor Men, Ladies and social aspiration; the transgressivity of cross dressing; the creation of "sapphic spaces;" aesthetic desire and its fulfilment in the achieved work of art, Thomas Hardy and Desire demonstrates Hardy's commitment, as an artist in pursuit of "a way to the better," to exploring how the energy of desire pushes beyond the boundaries of class, sexuality, gender and even language itself to bring new ways of being and doing into the realm of knowledge.

Barbara Pavlock unmasks major figures in Ovid's ""Metamorphoses"" as surrogates for his narrative persona, highlighting the conflicted revisionist nature of the ""Metamorphoses"". Although Ovid ostensibly validates traditional customs and institutions, instability is in fact a defining feature of both the core epic values and his own poetics. ""The Image of the Poet"" explores issues central to Ovid's poetics - the status of the image, the generation of plots, repetition, opposition between refined and inflated epic style, the reliability of the narrative voice, and the interrelation of rhetoric and poetry. The work explores the constructed author and complements recent criticism focusing on the reader in the text. Ovid's simultaneous play to and rebellion against epic tradition makes Narcissus both an idealized elegiac image through allusions to the poet's own mistress in the Amores and an elegiac poet fixated on his own image. Through Narcissus' demise, Ovid reflects the instability of visual images. In ""Orpheus' story of Venus and Adonis"", an undercurrent of desire in Venus' inset tale reveals a problematic self-involvement. The self-referential nature of Orpheus' song then raises questions about his reliability as narrator, a theme that culminates in Ulysses' contest with Ajax. Here Ovid undercuts heroic views about lineage and valor, but also highlights the many clever strategies by which Ulysses elevates himself over his rival, undermining Homer's ""Illiad"" and ""Odyssey"". Ovid questions the authority of the narrator but also provides the means for understanding the problems at the core of his epic. Thus, in his time and ours, the reader ultimately emerges better equipped to assess inherited traditions in literary, social, and political spheres.

Drawing from classical myth, the history of philosophy, literature, film, music, and painting, Workman connects the artistic claims of Chaucer and tests them against similar gestures in the history of philosophy and literature. What results is a radical retake on Chaucer as a philosopher and poet, upending any preconceived views.

Writing Celebrity is divided into three major sections. The first part traces the rise of a national celebrity culture in the United States and examines the impact that this culture had on "literary" writing in the decades before World War II. The second two sections of the book demonstrate the relevance of celebrity for literary scholarship by re-evaluating the careers of two major American authors, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.

This book provides provocative information on poetry written in response to the most revolutionary set of events seen in Britain since the 1640s: "Peterloo," a peaceful protest that became a massacre; "Cato Street," a government scripted rebellion; and the "Queen Caroline Controversy," when the estranged wife of George IV tried to claim her crown.

This book by one of the preeminent Virgil scholars of our day is the first comprehensive study of ekphrasis in Virgil's final masterpiece, the Aeneid. Virgil uses ekphrasis-a self-contained aside that generates a pause in the narrative to describe a work of art or other object-to tell us something about the grander text in which it is embedded, says Michael C. J. Putnam. Individually and as a group, Virgil's ekphrases enrich the reader's understanding of the meaning of the epic. Putnam shows how the descriptions of works of art, and of people, places, and even animals, provide metaphors for the entire poem and reinforce its powerful ambiguities. Putnam offers insightful analyses of the most extensive and famous ekphrases in the Aeneid-the paintings in Juno's temples in Carthage, the Daedalus frieze, and the shield of Aeneas. He also considers shorter and less well known examples-the stories of Ganymede, the Trojan shepherd swept into the sky by an amorous Jupiter; the fifty daughters of Danaus, ordered by their father to kill their husbands on their wedding night; and Virgil's original tale of a domesticated wild stag whose killing sparks a war between Trojans and Italians. These ekphrases incorporate major themes of the Aeneid, an enduring formative text of the Western tradition, and provide a rich variety of interpretive perspectives on the poem.

This book re-evaluates the perception of "courtly love" in Old French verse. Adams traces how these verses explore the emotional trials of "amour" and propose coping methods for the lovelorn.

In this first book-length study of Stevie Smith, Romana Huk reassesses the work of this major twentieth-century woman writer as emerging not only from the practices of female literary modernism, but also from within the tumultuous cultural context of mid-century Europe. Huk considers both the poems and the novels in the light of their cultural and literary context. Amongst the work treated here is Smith's rarely discussed trilogy of novels: Novel on Yellow Paper , Over the Frontier and The Holiday .

Why have poets played such an important role for contemporary philosophers? How can poetry link philosophy and political theory? How do formal considerations intersect with philosophical approaches? These essays seek to establish a dialogue between poetry and philosophy. Each essay contributes to our understanding of the relationships between theory and lived experience while providing new insight into important poets such as Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme, Victor Hugo, and others. The broad range of metaphysical, phenomenological, aesthetic, and ethical approaches announce important new paths for a reinvigorated study of lyric poetry in the decades to come.

In his old age T. S. Eliot said on a number of occasions that the American experience of his childhood and youth had had the deepest influence on his poetry. This is the first book to explore in detail how Eliot's writings at once preserved and reacted against his complex American heritage: his intellectually and socially prominent family, their strong Unitarian culture and their experience in nineteenth-century St Louis and Boston. Besides demonstrating how Eliot's preoccupation with theatricality and self-consciousness descends from a line of American writers with similar impulses, the book pursues the theme of doubleness in rhetoric and the self and traces the influence on Eliot of the philosopher F. H. Bradley. Analysing major poems from 'Prufrock' through The Waste Land, Sigg draws upon Eliot's early philosophical writing, essays and reviews to reveal Eliot's early poetry both as a distinct entity and as a stage in his development.