Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisJohn Manson's collection of letters to MacDiarmid, or to Christopher Grieve, or to Hugh or Chris or Christie or Hughie, is a major work. It is the fruit of a lifetime of dedicated scholarly research, meticulous, self-effacing study in libraries, most deeply in the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh University Library, and follows his initial co-editorship with David Craig of the first Penguin paperback edition of MacDiarmid's Selected Poems (1970), and his later co-editorship of The Revolutionary Art of the Future: Rediscovered Poems, with Dorian Grieve and Alan Riach (2003). 'He is a fine poet and translator himself, and his small-press publications are to be sought out and read closely. However, this is a monumental achievement: a collection so rich in diversity, covering historical epochs, strata of human character, social engagement, political motivation and accomplishment, that it will take some time before its impact and value really sinks in and embeds itself in modern literary and political culture - especially in Scotland!' - from the Introduction by Alan Riach, Professor of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow.Trade Review'[A] magisterial selection by John Manson - one of the most assiduous and effective labourers in the MacDiarmid vineyard for no less than seven decades. The printed letters are accompanied by detailed and informative annotations, and the book is further enlivened by more than thirty period photographs and other reproductions. [It] offers testimony to the extraordinary breadth of MacDiarmid's intellectual circle.' Professor Patrick Crotty, University of Aberdeen 'Manson's industry, and his enthusiasm for MacDiarmid, are overwhelming. Not for the first time, [he] has unearthed material that alters our view of his hero.' Brian Smith, The New Shetlander, Voar Issue 2012. 'This is a fascinating book, one to keep within reach for stimulation or escape from the troubles of the day.' Paul Henderson Scott, Scots Independent newspaper, March 2012. 'Reading this meticulously researched collection of hundreds of letters .. opens a window on a whole period of ideological struggle for national recognition, socialism and opposition to imperialism and war.' Jean Turner, Morning Star, January 2012Table of ContentsAcknowledgements. Hugh MacDiarmid: Put it to the Touch - An Introduction to Dear Grieve by Alan Riach. List of Abbreviations. Illustrations. Titles of Books Frequently Cited. Hugh MacDiarmid's Addresses. Note on the Text. The Letters - The 1920s; The 1930s; The 1940s; The 1950s; The 1960s; The 1970s. Letters to Hugh MacDiarmid which have previously appeared in print. Biographical List of Correspondents. Index

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Book SynopsisThe late Annemarie Schimmel drew exhaustively on an enourmous range of sources both ancient and modern to create this thorough survey of a unique body of literature. Travelling from continent to continent and across the centuries, this story of Islamic poetry encompasses a wide spectrum of traditions and cultures, from Arabic religious verse to the ecstasies of the persian Sufis and the popular folk poetry of India and Pakistan.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. Flowers of the Desert: The Development of Arabic Mystical Poetry 2. Tiny Mirros of Divine Beauty: Classical persian Mystical Poetry 3. Sun Triumphal - Love Triumphant: Maulana Rumi and the Metaphors of Love 4. The Voice of Love: Mystical poetry in the Vernaculars 5. God's Beloved and Intercessor for Man: Poetry in Honor of the Prophet Abbreviations Used in Notes and Bibliography Notes Bibliography Index of Selected Quotations Index of Proper Names Index of Technical Terms

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Book SynopsisThe Angel of History bears witness to the moral disasters of our times: war, genocide, the Holocaust, the atomic bomb. The book is a meditation on memory – how memory survives the unimaginable. The poems are fragmented, discordant, reflecting the effects of such experience, but forming a haunting mosaic of grief, evoking the necessary accommodations we make to survive what is unsurvivable. It is divided into five sections dealing with the atrocities of war in France, Japan and Germany as well as Carolyn Forché's own experiences in Beirut and El Salvador. The title figure, the Angel of History – a figure imagined by Walter Benjamin – can record the miseries of humanity yet is unable either to prevent these miseries from happening or from suffering from the pain associated with them. Kevin Walker, in the Detroit Free Press, called the book 'a meditation on destruction, survival and memory'. Don Bogen, in The Nation, saw this as a logical development, since Forché’s work with her poetry of witness anthology Against Forgetting was 'instrumental in moving her poetry beyond the politics of personal encounter. The Angel of History is rather an extended poetic mediation on the broader contexts – historical, aesthetic, philosophical – which include [the 20th]…century’s atrocities,' wrote Bogen. And Steven Ratiner, reviewing the work for the Christian Science Monitor, called it one that 'addresses the terror and inhumanity that have become standard elements in the twentieth-century political landscape – and yet affirms as well the even greater reservoir of the human spirit'.Trade Review"The "Angel of History" is instantly recognizable as a great book, the most humanitarian and aesthetically 'inevitable' response to a half century of atrocities that has yet been written in English."-- Calvin Bedient, "The Threepenny Review""The poignant "cri de couer" of this singular work most affect all who have an integrity still possible in this painfully despairing time."-- Robert Creeley"I don't think I have ever come across a poem of such length that is nevertheless so beautifully transparent and haunting."-- James Merrill"A dark, richly textured, complicated work...["The Angel of History"] is that great rarity, an altogether new thing."-- Liz Rosenberg, "Boston Globe""Poetry of consummate beauty...reminiscent of Eliot's 'The Waste Land.'"-- "Publishers Weekly" (starred review)

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Book SynopsisIn the wake of Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey", poets of the seventh and sixth centuries BC composed epics which covered other parts of the Trojan War story or different areas of Greek mythology. Quotations from them and other testimonies as to their content survive in later authors and the evidence thus assembled allows us to reconstruct something of the poems' contents. Collectively these poems came to be known by Hellenistic scholars in Alexandria as 'The Epic Cycle'. With their often grotesque and fantastic tales, the cyclic poems were an important source for later writers of epic. Yet they also present a wealth of fascinating mythological details in their own right and provide absorbing variation on the traditional themes presented in Homer. Why are certain themes frequently used, while others are neglected in various poems? Such considerations enhance an overall appreciation of epic theme and outlook. This short study provides an introduction to the Cycle for students and scholars of Greek epic, and of Classical civilisation and mythology more generally. All quotations are translated, making the material accessible to those with little or no Greek.

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Book SynopsisThis edition, originally published in 1953 in the admirable Methuen Classical Texts series, has been in print ever since. It's longevity is deserved; for it remains a very fine edition, manageable at different levels of attainment. Maguinness had chiefly in mind students at sixth-form or early university level but, for the benefit of less practised students taking GCSE or in their second year of Latin bugun at University, he wisely included a Vocabulary (marked with syllable lengths to tie in with his very useful section on scansion and reading aloud) and a considerable amount of fairly elementary linguistic matter in the Notes. The Introduction gives an outline of the background knowledge needed by a beginner in Virgilian studies. For a succinct and always level-headed approach to the "Aeneid", this remains a splendid edition - one for which more advanced Virgilians still have every reason to be thankful; and Book XII gives an excellent flavour of the whole epic and the meaning of its constantly enigmatic closure.Table of ContentsIntroduction I. The Life And Works Of Virgil II. The Epic Tradition And The Aeneid III. Virgil's Poetry And The Modern Reader I IV. The Metre Of Virgil Bibliography Text Notes Index

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Book SynopsisA.D.P. Briggs is Professor Emeritus, University of Birmingham, and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol, UK. He was awarded the Pushkin Medal 'for distinguished writing about Pushkin in the English Language', and a second Pushkin Medal was awarded 'for an outstanding contribution to the Pushkin bicentennial celebration'. His many books include Alexander Pushkin: a Critical Study, (1991); Eugene Onegin, Landmarks of World Literature (1992), and as editor Alexander Pushkin (1997) and translator Eugene Onegin (1995).

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Book SynopsisThe Spanish ballad is well documented from the 16th to the 20th century in substantial, though declining, oral sources, chiefly in Castilian but also in Judeo-Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese. The 70 ballads in this volume are taken from 16th-century printed sources, from the period when the ballad of tradition, sung and orally transmitted, was polished for printing by poets, musicians and editors to meet the taste of the times. There is a general introduction, notes prefacing each group, and others about origins, background, variants, modern oral version, English translations, following each ballad, a bibliography and a glossary of difficult terms. The book is part of the "BCP Spanish Texts" series, designed to meet the needs of the fast-growing A-Level and undergraduate markets for texts in the Spanish language. Each text comes with English notes and vocabulary, and with an introduction by an editor with an expert knowledge both of the work and of the literary and cultural context in which it was produced.

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Book SynopsisEmpedocles (c. 494-434 B.C.) achieved legendary status as a philosopher, scientist, healer, poet and orator. He made important contributions to the developments of European thought with his theory of the four elements, his detailed work on perception, respiration and cognition, and his understanding in the kinship in structure and form of the hierarchy of living creatures. Now available in paperback, this is the first full-scale edition this century of the extant fragments, which are grouped into two poems -- Physics and Katharmoi. In her Introduction, Professor Wright surveys the evidence for Empedocles’ life and writings, and gives a clear account of the main lines of thought within a framework common to the poems. The fragments are presented in their contexts in a new ordering with full critical apparatus; they are followed by a translation and commentary on each, in which the linguistic, philosophical and scientific questions relevant to the text are examined. The Indexes cover sources, passages cited and subject matter, as well as a comprehensive concordance of Empedocles’ vocabulary. This new in paperback edition has been updated with a bibliographic commentary covering the last fifteen years of Empedoclean scholarship, and is part of the Classic Latin and Greek texts series.Trade ReviewUndergraduates will find this book an invaluable guide through the perplexing terrain of Empedocles’ language and thought. Scholars too will welcome it. -- Classical ReviewPacked with fresh suggestions and arguments which constitute a major contribution to a difficult and much discussed topic. -- Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsI. INTRODUCTION 1. Life and Writings Dating Empedoc1es' Life Politics, Rhetoric, and Medicine The Manner ofEmpedocles' Death Works Attributed to Empedocles 2. Physics Earth, Air, Fire, and Water Love and Strife Mixing and Separating The Plan of the Physics Monsters and Men 3. Katharmoi and Physics Common Ground Crime, Punishment, and Responsibility Empedocles as Daimon 4. The Allocation of the Fragments 5. The Titles of the Poems 6. Concordance of the Ordering of the Fragments II. TEXT 7. llEPI «l»YEEill: (fragments 1-101) 8. KA9APMOI (fragments 102-133) 9. Addenda (fragments 134-152) III. TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY 10. Physics 11. Katharmoi 12. Addenda Bibliography Bibliographical AfterWord Additional Bibliography Index Fontium Index Verborum Index Locorum Index Nominum et Rerum

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Book SynopsisLucretius offers his readers a complete guide to happiness and a total tour of the universe. Even a few selections from his poetry reveal the radical freethinker at his very best. This book draws on the latest research into the text and interpretation of Lucretius. It is aimed at the sixth-former or undergraduate who seeks a helpful introduction to the poem; little background knowledge of Latin literature will be assumed. The commentary elucidates both the poetic artistry and philosophical content.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction Summary Metre Select Bibliography Text Commentary Book One Book Two Book Three Book Four Book Five Book Six

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Book SynopsisThis is the first volume of R. Deryck Williams' classic edition of the Aeneid, covering books I-VI. It includes the Latin text, with English introduction, an extensive commentary and notes by this renowned Virgilian scholar. Designed for upper school and university students, the commentary discusses the life and works of Virgil, the legend of Aeneas, structure and themes and Virgil’s hexameter. It interprets the poetic methods and intentions of the Aeneid, and explains not only what Virgil says, but how he says it and why he says it in the particular way which he chooses. Williams considers the limitations and similarities of diction from English poets - particularly Spenser and Milton - in order to illuminate the literary impact of the Virgilian passage. Williams' aim was to be "concise rather than omissive" and his notes remain an example of clarity and good sense for any student approaching the first half of the Aeneid in whole or in part.Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1 Life and works of Virgil 2 Virgil and Augustus 3 The legend of Aeneas 4 Sources of the Aeneid 5 Synopsis of the Aeneid 6 Structure and themes 7 Virgil’s hexameter 8 The manuscripts of the Aeneid and the ancient commentators 9 Differences of text between this edition and Mynors and Hirtzel 10 Bibliography TEXT Commentary Index to the notes English-Russian vocabulary Index of prepositions Index of Russian words and morphemes Index of grammatical subjects

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Book SynopsisThis is the second volume of R. Deryck Williams' classic edition of the Aeneid, covering books VII and XII. It includes the Latin text, with English introduction, an extensive commentary and notes by this renowned Virgilian scholar. Designed for upper school and university students, the commentary interprets the poetic methods and intentions of the Aeneid, and explains not only what Virgil says, but how he says it and why he says it in the particular way which he chooses. The outstanding and long-lived ‘red Macmillan’ series of editions survived on the basis of T. E. Page’s perceptive and exemplary editions of Virgil, dating from the closing decade of the nineteenth century. In the early 1970s, replacement editions were prepared by the outstanding Virgilian scholar R.D. Williams, to take account of more modern approaches to Virgil and of the needs of new generations of upper school and university students. The scale of the edition required brevity and immediate relevance to the text but Williams achieved his aim of being ‘concise rather than omissive’ and his notes remain an example of clarity and good sense for any student approaching the second half of the Aeneid in whole or in part.Table of ContentsAuthor’s Note Preface Introduction 1. Life and works of Virgil 2. Virgil and Augustus 3. The legend of Aeneas 4. Sources of the Aeneid 5. Synopsis of the Aeneid 6. Structure and themes 7. Virgil’s hexameter 8. The manuscripts of the Aeneid and the ancient commentators 9. Differences of text between this edition and Mynors and Hirtzel 10. Bibliography Text Commentary Index to the notes

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Book SynopsisMedicine, zoology, botany and mineralogy are the themes of Nicander's two extant poems of the Hellenistic period - "Theriaca" and "Alexipharmaca". Fragments of other poems also survive, including some fairly substantial pieces of his "Georgica". His didactic poetry, along with that of his approximate contemporary Aratus, had some influence on later poets, notably Virgil and Ovid. This fully annotated English translation of Nicander's work was first published in 1953.

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Book SynopsisJorge Guillen belongs to a brilliant cluster of Spanish poets, a generation once defined by Salinas, one of its members, as "born under a lyrical star". Towards the end of his life Guillen's most famous work "Cantico" - the fruit of some 30 years of labour - was recognized as a masterpiece and stands alongside the poetical works of Lorca, Alberti and Cernuda. Most usefully translated as a hymn or song of praise, "Cantico" is an antidote to today's world of doubts, fears, conflicts and seductive philosophies of despair. The attitude to life it holds out to its readers is summed up in the epitaph on Guillen's tomb in the English cemetery in Malaga: "Aqui yace un enamorado de la vida" ("Here lies a lover of life").

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Book SynopsisThe aim of this title is to provide a reference work for both students and teachers on every kind of Latin metre from the early "saturnian" to medieval accentual verse. The information provided aims to be in its simplest form to make the subject more accessible and jargon free.

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Book Synopsis"The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" stand at the very beginning of Greek literature. Much has been written about their origins and authorship, but Jasper Griffin, although he touches briefly on those questions, is here concerned with the ideas of the poems, which have had such an incalculable influence on the ideas of the West. He shows that each of the two epics has its own coherent and suggestive view of the world and of man's place in it.Trade Review'...a brilliant little introduction.' The Times 'Mr. Griffin brings English scholarship up to date by bringing it firmly back to Homer.' London Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThis volume is part of a series of key monographs on topics central to the study of the classical world. It looks at Theocritus as both a source for Vergil and later writers and as a significant poet in his own right. It gives an insight into this classical author which may prove relevant not only for classicists but also for all studying the pastoral tradition in literature.Trade Review'Should be required reading for anyone attempting to deal with the pastoral tradition.' Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 'Professor Rosenmeyer's full-length study treats Theocritus not merely as a source for Vergil and later writers but as a poet - a significantly worthy poet - in his own right. This is a fully documented literary study of Theocritus that cannot help but provide the student with deep insight and steady appreciation of a notable Hellenistic author and a persistent literary genre.' Classical Outlook

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Book SynopsisJohn Keats began writing at the age of 18, and by the time he died, seven years later in 1821, he had produced a substantial number of poems. This collection contains his work - his narratives, sonnets of discovery and his six odes - and culminates in "To Autumn".

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Book SynopsisFor centuries women have written about love with passion, humour, frustration and despair; but never before have their voices come together as in this exhilarating and timeless compendium. Here are love poems in all their true, subversive drama, delicately arranged according to a balance of moods and modes: of argument and lyric, joke and passionate utterance, rejection, rage and ecstacy. Poets, well-known and obscure, ancient and modern - from Sappho to Akhamotova,Patti Smith to Selima Hill, Sylvia Plath to Alice Walker - all challenge the traditional perception of women as muse and object of desire, and magnificently transcend it.Trade ReviewFeisty selection of anthems with attitude ... a noisy throng of impressively dissimilar voices ... A book to treasure * IRISH TIMES *An exhilarating collection with women across the centuries writing about love, with wit, passion, frustration, rage and ecstacy. * WOMAN'S JOURNAL *

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Book SynopsisR.F. Langley's 'Collected Poems' (Carcanet, 2000) was one of the poetic highlights of recent times, showing a sometimes sceptical public that a contemporary poet could still engage with the shades of Modernism and produce fascinating and original work. Throughout his life, the author has been maintaining a journal, which is part diary, part autobiography and part commonplace book; some extracts from these fascinating volumes have been appearing in 'P N Review' since 2002. This book offers a number of selections, ranging in time from 1970 to 2005, which will give admirers of his poetry a clearer idea of the author's other writings, which run in parallel with his poetry and sometimes provide the underpinnings for it.

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Book SynopsisA collection of essays based on the conference of the same name held at the Univeristy of Plymouth in April 2007. Contributors are Lyn Hejinian, Barrett Watten; Andrea Brady, Allen Fisher, Robert Hampson, Richard Kerridge, Peter Middleton, William Rowe, Robert Sheppard; Helene Aji, Andrew Browne, Matt Chambers, Brendan Cooper, Ian Davidson, Carrie Etter, Kit Fryatt, Piers Hugill, Michael Kindellan, Greg Lainsbury, Catherine Martin, Will Montgomery, Eva Mueller-Zettelman, Susan Nurmi-Schomers, Christopher Orchard, Robin Peel, Kathy-Ann Tan, Philip Terry and Scott Thurston.

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Book SynopsisThe book aims to be the most useful and engaging introduction to the medieval Italian poet Guido Cavalcanti in English.

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Book SynopsisThis book examines the representation of empathy in contemporary poetry after crisis, specifically poetry after the Holocaust, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and Hurricane Katrina. The text argues that, recognizing both the possibilities and dangers of empathy, the poems under consideration variously invite and refuse empathy, thus displaying what Anna Veprinska terms empathetic dissonance. Veprinska proposes that empathetic dissonance reflects the texts’ struggle with the question of the value and possibility of empathy in the face of the crises to which these texts respond. Examining poems from Charlotte Delbo, Dionne Brand, Niyi Osundare, Charles Reznikoff, Robert Fitterman, Wisława Szymborska, Cynthia Hogue, Claudia Rankine, Paul Celan, Dan Pagis, Lucille Clifton, and Katie Ford, among others, Veprinska considers empathetic dissonance through language, witnessing, and theology. Merging comparative close readings with interdisciplinary theory from philosophy, psychology, cultural theory, history and literary theory, and trauma studies, this book juxtaposes a genocide, a terrorist act, and a natural disaster amplified by racial politics and human disregard in order to consider what happens to empathy in poetry after events at the limits of empathy. Table of Contents1. Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 The Permeability of Terms 1.2 The Benefits and Dangers of Empathy 1.3 The Poetry of Empathetic Dissonance after Three Contemporary Crises 1.4 The Chapters 2. Chapter 2: The Unsaid 2.1 & the Holocaust 2.2 & 9/11 2.3 & Hurricane Katrina 3. Chapter 3: The Unhere 3.1 & the Holocaust 3.2 & 9/11 3.3 & Hurricane Katrina 4. Chapter 4: The Ungod 4.1 & the Holocaust 4.2 & 9/11 4.3 & Hurricane Katrina 5. Conclusion 5.1 Challenges and Limitations 5.2 Empathy: Thread and Needle 5.3 Alternative Avenues 5.4 Future Directions 5.5. To the Reader 5.6 Unconclusion 

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Book SynopsisThis collection gathers together an exciting new series of critical essays on the Romantic- and Victorian-period poet John Clare, which each take a rigorous approach to both persistent and emergent themes in his life and work. Designed to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Clare’s first volume of poetry, Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery, the scholarship collected here both affirms Clare’s importance as a major nineteenth-century poet and reveals how his verse continually provokes fresh areas of enquiry. Offering new archival, theoretical, and sometimes corrective insights into Clare’s world and work, the essays in this volume cover a multitude of topics, including Clare’s immersion in song and print culture, his formal ingenuity, his environmental and ecological imagination, his mental and physical health, and his experience of asylums. This book gives students a range of imaginative avenues into Clare’s work, and offers both new readers and experienced Clare scholars a vital set of contributions to ongoing critical debates.Table of Contents1. Introduction; Simon Kövesi and Erin Lafford.- 2. Poetry’s Variety: John Clare and the Poetic Scene in the 1820s and 1830; David Stewart.- 3. ‘Sweet the Merry Bells Ring Round’: John Clare’s songs for the drawing room; Kirsteen McCue.- 4.‘Sea Songs Love Ballads &c &c’: John Clare and Vernacular Song; Stephanie Kuduk Weiner.- 5. John Clare’s Landforms; Sara Lodge.- 6. John Clare’s Ear: Metres and Rhythms; Andrew Hodgson.- 7. The Shepherd’s Calendar and Forms of Repetition; Sarah Houghton-Walker.- 8. John Clare’s Dynamic Animals; James Castell.- 9. Multispecies Work in John Clare’s ‘Bird Nesting’ Poems; Katey Castellano.- 10. Biosemiosis and Posthumanism in John Clare’s Multi-Centered Environments; Scott Hess.- 11. Common Distress: John Clare’s Poetic Strain; Michael Nicholson.- 12. ‘fancys or feelings’: John Clare’s Hypochondriac Poetics; Erin Lafford.- 13. ‘A song in the night’: reconsidering John Clare’s later asylum poetry; James Whitehead.- Index.

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Book SynopsisThis textbook teaches the writing of poetry by examining all the major verse forms and repeating stanza forms in English. It provides students with the tools to compose successful lines of poetry and focuses on meter (including free verse), rhythm, rhyme, and the many other tools a poet needs to create both music and meaningfulness in an artful poem. Presenting copious examples from strong poets of the past and present along with many recent student examples, all of which are scanned, each chapter offers lessons in poetic history and the practice of writing verse, along with giving students a structured opportunity to experiment writing in all the forms discussed. In Part 1, Rothman and Spear begin at the beginning, with Anglo-Saxon Strong Stress Alliterative Meter and examine every major meter in English, up to and including the free verse forms of modern and contemporary poetry. Part 2 presents a close examination of stanza forms that moves from the simple to the complex, beginning with couplets and ending with the 14-line Eugene Onegin stanza. The goal of the book is to give students the essential skills to understand how any line of poetry in English may have been composed, the better to enjoy them and then also write their own: the keys to the treasure chest. Rothman and Spear present a rigorous curriculum that teaches the craft of poetry through a systematic examination and practice of the major English meters and verse forms. Under their guidance, students hone their craft while studying the rich traditions and innovations of poets writing in English. Suitable for high school students and beyond. I studied with Rothman in graduate school and went through this course with additional scholarly material. This book will help students develop a keen ear for the music of the English language.—Teow Lim Goh, author of Islanders Trade Review“A poet/educator and fellow teacher attempt the impossible: a rigorous textbook that provides creative writing students ‘the building blocks of verse in a progressive, well-organized, and clear way,’ with instruction ‘in every major meter and repeating stanza form in English’—without killing the works themselves in the dissection. Casual readers are advised not to try to ingest the result whole, but rather to consult as needed while exploring poetry.” (Harvard Magazine, harvardmagazine.com, Issue 1, 2023)Table of ContentsPreface.- Introduction.- Part One: Metrical Forms.- 1. Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Strong-Stress Meter.- 2. Ballad Meter.- 3. Stress-Based Imitations of Classical Forms: The Sapphic and the Catullan Hendecasyllable.- Interchapter: An Explanation of Scansion.- 4. Iambic Tetrameter.- 5. Iambic Pentameter and Blank Verse.- 6. Triple Meters: Dactyls and Anapests.- 7. Free Verse: A) Whitmanian Versicles, B) Loose Iambics, C) Syllabics, D) Unrhymed Stressing, E) Free Rhyming, F) Prose Rhythms and the Variable Foot.- 8. Nonce Meters.- Part Two: Stanza Forms.-9. Couplets.- 10. Terza Rima.- 11. Quatrains.- 12. Cinquains and Sextains.- 13. Rhyme Royal.- 14. Ottava Rima.- 15. Spenserian Stanzas.- 16. The Sonnet and Eugene Onegin Stanzas.- 17. Nonce Stanza.

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Book SynopsisIn October 1967, Pier Paolo Pasolini travelled to Venice to interview Ezra Pound for broadcast on national television. One a lifelong Marxist, the other a former propagandist for the Fascist regime, their encounter was billed as a clash of opposites. But what do these poets share? And what can they tell us about the poetics and politics of the twentieth century? This book reads one by way of the other, aligning their engagement with different temporalities and traditions, polities and geographies, languages and forms, evoked as utopian alternatives to the cultural and political crises of capitalist modernity. Part literary history, part comparative study, it offers a new and provocative perspective on these poets and the critical debates around them – in particular, on Pound’s Italian years and Pasolini’s use of Pound in his work. Their connection helps to understand the implications and legacies of their work today. Trade Review“Sean Mark’s in-depth study of Pound and Pasolini, subtitled Poetics of Crisis, is a remarkable piece of scholarship, beautifully written, masterfully organised, and which reads almost like the plot of a detective novel … .” (Jonathan Pollock, Transatlantica Issue 2, 2023)Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pound and/or Pasolini Chapter 1: Family Portraits Chapter 2: Creatures Facing Backwards Chapter 3: Exposition Chapter 4: An Economy of Signs Chapter 5: Failure Coda: Afterlives Appendix A. The Pasolini-Pound Interview B. The Ronsisvalle-Pound Interview

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Marking Paul Celan's 100th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his death, this volume endeavours to answer the following question: why does Celan still matter today – more than ever perhaps? And why should he continue to matter tomorrow? In other words, the volume explores and assesses the enduring significance of Celan's life and œuvre in and for the 21st century. Boasting cutting-edge research by international scholars together with original contributions by contemporary artists and writers, this book attests to, on the one hand, the extent to which large swathes of contemporary philosophy, poetics, literary scholarship, and aesthetics have been indebted to Celan's legacy and are simply unthinkable without it, and, on the other hand, to the malleability, adaptability, breadth and depth of Celan's poetics, which, like the music of The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or Queen, is reborn and rediscovered with every new generation.

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