Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisIn Accounting for Dante, Justin Steinberg reexamines Dante''s relation to his contemporary public, an audience that included those poets who responded to Dante''s early work as well as the readers who first copied, preserved, and circulated his poetry. Based on original research of manuscripts and documents, Steinberg''s study reveals in particular the importance of professional, urban classesnamely, merchants and notariesas cultivators of early Italian poetry.Although not officially trained as glossators or scribes, these newly educated readers were full participants in an emergent vernacular literature, demonstrating at times a marked degree of sophistication in their choices of which lyric poems to include in their personal anthologies. Adapting their methods of memorializing contracts and keeping accounts to the collecting of medieval Italian poetry, these urban readers and writers made copying Italian poetry a crucial aspect of how they understood and represented Trade Review“By considering Dante primarily in the context of the larger manuscript culture of his time, Steinberg delves deep into the past in order to say something entirely new about Dante and his self-conscious desire to reshape poetic tradition. Such an approach, relying on cutting-edge methods of philology, codicology, and paleography, reveals the degree to which the prevailing manuscript tradition conditioned Dante's views of fellow poets, and indeed of his own work . . . Recommended.” —Choice“Steinberg analyzes archival documents such as the Memoriali bolognesi and the register-book Vaticano Latino 3793 for evidence of how these merchants and notaries gathered and copied anthologies for personal reading, building rich historical, political and social contexts for the poetical debates of Dante's day and Dante's interpretations of how his reading public responded.” —Research Book News“It is clear from the first pages that Justin Steinberg’s book is innovative and groundbreaking. Returning the rightful importance to the cultural circumstances and social context surrounding some of Dante’s most important declarations of poetics, this critical analysis provides new and convincing answers to highly debated issues. It effectively accounts for Dante’s repeated attempts at directing his readership, not only using well-known self-referential speech acts, but especially through careful manipulation of the instruments and techniques of book production and circulation.” —Renaissance Quarterly“This volume offers a scholarly feast. It aims ‘to trace a history of duecento lyric poetry that takes into account the localized and socially stratified centers of textual production active in late medieval Italy.’ In fact, it focuses on poetry written in Emilia and Tuscany in the second half of the thirteenth century . . . This book is essential reading for all students of Dante.” —Speculum“Justin Steinberg's unusually keen capacity to draw upon historical, paleographical, and sociological realms of literary inquiry introduces to Anglophone audiences these approaches that tend to be more common in scholarship by Italian critics. But it is his readings of lesser-known poets (particularly Monte Andrea and Chiaro Davanzati) that are particularly illuminating and his suggestions concerning the class-conscious motivations behind poetic canon formation that are most suggestive. . . . Steinberg's scholarship effectively bridges some of the widest gaps between European and American sensibilities in literary analysis.” —The Sixteenth Century Journal“In his fascinating new book, Accounting for Dante, Justin Steinberg performs a veritable tour de force by bringing poetic and banking practices in late medieval Italy under the microscope for the first time.” —Christianity and Literature"Justin Steinberg's excellent new book expands the field of Dante studies with a close examination of Due and Trecento lyric culture, its material expression in manuscript form, and its historic readerships. As such, it is a very welcome contribution not only to Dante studies but also to the interface between book history and early literary studies. Stripping away the accretion of centuries of literary historiography, he re-presents Dante within his historical publishing context, showing how Dante responds to and attempts to direct the way in which his works circulated and were transmitted in the wider public sphere. . . . Steinberg's book, like the best studies, remakes the critical landscape in its wake, and should become essential reading for all concerned with textual production in medieval Italy." —Italian Studies"A rich and refreshingly innovative study of manuscript culture that sets Dante firmly within a material context. This is an adroitly layered book, with literary criticism and theory set over a solid base of physical examination of the material text. It brings manuscript studies, and, with it, associated political and social contexts, back to a central place in literary criticism.” —Medium Aevum

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Book SynopsisPresents a sustained close reading of the final version of William Langland’s Piers Plowman, the most searching Christian poem of the Middle Ages in English.Trade Review“As a biblical scholar and historian of ancient Christianity, I knew next to nothing about Piers Plowman before reading David Aers’s completely accessible book, but I feel I have learned a huge amount from it. This magisterial and powerful exposition is certainly informative about a period of pre-Reformation English religious and political history not well known to many of us. But it is also timely for today. The book demonstrates how relevant Piers Plowman is, at least in Aers’s interpretation, for current epistemology, ecclesiology, politics, and religion.” —Dale Martin, Woolsey Professor of Religious Studies, Yale University“David Aers, as a master interpreter, shows us how he reads Langland and, while doing so, instructs us in how to read. His brilliant essay models for us how it is possible, and indeed desirable, to open the usually well-policed border between theological reflection and literary analysis and thereby aim at a fuller reading of what a life of faith encompasses. Along the way, we gain an appreciation of William Langland’s formidable Middle English epic masterpiece, Piers Plowman, and the riches it repays our careful attention." —James Wetzel, Augustinian Endowed Chair in the Thought of St. Augustine and Professor of Philosophy, Villanova University"Beyond Reformation? is a remarkable book by a master who has creatively invented a form to match and elucidate its complex and compelling object of attention. The book is designed for all readers interested in late medieval English and early modern literary and theological culture. Many scholars will read it, especially scholars of Middle English literature. It is less an introduction than a re-introduction of an extraordinary and very readable kind. I expect it to be received with lively acclaim within that large field." —James Simpson, Donald P. and Katherine B. Loker Professor of English, Harvard University"Beyond Reformation? is a singular and immensely rewarding book, a theological meditation on the nature of the Church and the Christian life by means of a close engagement with the Middle-English poem Piers Plowman. Difficult to summarize, the book reads as something of a marvelous fugue, with themes and authors appearing, disappearing, and reappearing transformed into new guises as author David Aers imitates the dialectical processes of his poetic subject." —Reading Religion“For those of us who have committed ourselves to the life-long study of the poem, Aers’ book offers a refreshingly clean and straightforward take on it—one that focuses on . . . a strong and consistent through-line that has consequences not only for us as readers of the poem, but also for us as sometimes unwilling participants in massive and coercive hierarchies of power.” —The Medieval Review “Aers’s book is provocative, challenging, memorable, and rewarding.” —Modern Philology“There is much to admire in this book . . . [it] has the advantage of Aers’s style of writing, which is very pleasant to read and often provides a poetic touch that reflects its source material.” —Renaissance and Reformation“Even those most likely to disagree with Aers will find his ‘idiosyncratic little book’ very well worth reading. It is passionately sincere, richly informative, and always stimulating.” —Medium Aevum“Overall, the work is an incredible display of scholarship, and few give the same level of details found in Aers’s writing. Aers has written a book that takes an incredibly complex discussion and made it surprisingly accessible to scholars from multiple disciplines.” —Sixteenth Century Journal

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Book SynopsisThe title poemabout a group of schoolchildren illustrating Shelley''s Ode to a Skylarkends with the following assertion: these are the only / lessons they will ever need to learn: that life / is not artifact, but aperturea stepping into / and a falling away; that to sing is to rise / from the grave of the body. And still / say less than nothing. This idea of the aperture, the gap, the silence that exists between what we want to say and what we actually do say pervades The Curator of Silence. The paradox, of course, is that the creation of art itself makes this gap, as there is always a gulf between the impulse and the gesture, the vision and the poem. Nutter''s experience of living for two months in the Antarctic, perhaps the greatest silence and solitude possible on earth, is the archetype of silence whose many dimensions she explores in this volume. She considers both literal, obvious silencesdeath, abandonment, loneliness, the silence into which lost things vTrade Review“If you buy only one poetry collection this year, don’t miss this book. . . . What a joy to read Jude Nutter’s poems, with their capacious, thrilling range of language and image.” —ForeWord "Making is what the poet or artist does. But the 'lessons' of which [Nutter] speaks in the title poem . . . are: 'that life/is not artifact, but aperture—a stepping into // and a falling away; that to sing is to rise / from the grave of the body. And still / say less than nothing.' The greatest subject, paradoxically, is what cannot be said or shown. There is thus a quality of silence about real art that is like nothing else on earth. It was an intimation of this, in verse ambitious to reach into darkness and silence, yet to taste fully of life, that surprised and impressed me in Jude Nutter's work twenty-five years ago. In her subsequent poetry, culminating in The Curator of Silence, she has learned to speak eloquently of that which cannot be put into words." —Notre Dame Review"The Curator of Silence is a wonderful book, both generous and challenging. From the very first page, Jude Nutter asks the reader to join with her in an exploration that curates not only silence but the many varieties of human experience that enliven, threaten, and sometimes deepen that silence. Her poems are imaginative, and their music always feels authentic, as if born from far inside the poem. The voice of the poems speaks from intimacy and demands intimacy from the reader in return. If those poems are sometimes harrowing, they are also redeeming, and leave us strangely renewed. I envy those who have the pleasure of reading her book for the first time." —Jim Moore, author of Lightning at Dinner: PoemsThese astonishing poems take my breath away with their beauty and deeply held knowledge. Not only are they wedded to the earth as they emerge from the poet's personal mythology, but—like a shawl thrown over the shoulders—they give comfort as they explore the fragile balance between life and death, gain and loss. Here is a poet who speaks subtle truths; I know I'll want to return to her poems again and again." —Judith Minty"She is still celebrating the variousness of God's creation and listening to the heartbeat of nature often heard faintly only amid "the dross and the mementoes of a life." She knows the importance of naming things and places in order to call them into life. With this new collection Jude Nutter enters the league of poets who are here to stay. In "The Curator of Silence" she confirms the promise of earlier work, emerging as a major poet who makes a startling difference to our perceptions of the extraordinary in the everyday and giving voice to deep-felt thoughts and feelings in poems that startle and delight." —Seamus Hosey, Senior Arts Producer, RTE Radio 1, Ireland

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Book SynopsisFleshly Tabernacles examines how John Milton’s engagement with the Incarnation affected nonconformist sects of revolutionary England.Trade Review"Fleshly Tabernacles is an important investigation of the Incarnation in Milton's thought and works and in revolutionary England, especially in the 1640s and 1650s. This is a learned, often powerful, and conceptually rich study of an important topic in its broad cultural context. Bryan Adams Hampton makes an original contribution to the field of seventeenth-century literary and religious studies." —David Loewenstein, University of Wisconsin-Madison"In Fleshly Tabernacles Bryan Adams Hampton brings fresh attention to the critical topic of Milton's heterodox Christology and its implications for his efforts as polemicist and poet. Hampton's arguments are particularly illuminating as they concern the idiosyncratic doctrine of the incarnate word presented in Milton's theological treatise in relation to his poetry. This original and thought-provoking book concludes with telling studies of heterodox incarnational theology as it shapes the writings of other radical seventeenth-century English religious writers such as Gerrard Winstanley and James Nayler." —John Rumrich, University of Texas at Austin“Bryan Hampton’s book makes an original and important contribution to the field of Milton studies, as well as to the study of seventeenth-century radical English religious thought. His work has further implications for the study of comparative hermeneutics, proposing provocative continuities and correlations between medieval and early modern approaches to interpretation on the one hand, and contemporary theories of language and meaning on the other. Exhaustively researched and meticulously annotated, Hampton’s readings of incarnational epistemologies offer a wealth of insights and suggestive parallels among early modern writers who are not often taken together.” —Jeffrey Spencer Shoulson, University of Miami“By taking the Logos seriously as divinity and language, Fleshly Tabernacles finds new depths in seventeenth-century religious poetry, and adds a great deal to our understanding of Milton’s Christology. It develops a wide array of critical approaches, deftly synthesizing Patristic with postmodern theologians, with the historically specific discourses of early modern preachers and radicals, with language theorists such as Ricoeur and Wittgenstein, with Milton and Milton criticism.” —Milton Quarterly“Hampton’s Fleshly Tabernacles is an interesting exposition of how Milton’s Christology shaped his reading, writing, and politics. It focuses on the Incarnation as a central preoccupation throughout Milton’s oeuvre and how Incarnational thinking was applied to such disparate realms as poetics, aesthetics, hermeneutics, and economics. . . . Hampton’s book can be praised for its boldness, and the requisite command of the Miltonic corpus required to sustain such a sweeping argument is impressive.” —Sixteenth Century Journal“Fleshly Tabernacles is a clearly learned and meticulously researched piece of Milton scholarship, which students of intellectual and cultural history will find extremely useful.” —Renaissance Quarterly“. . . anyone interested in Milton will want to engage Fleshly Tabernacles. Hampton’s scholarship here is certainly worthy of the common accolade offered in each of three back-cover blurbs from eminent Milton scholars (David Loewenstein, John Rumrich, Jeffrey Spencer Shoulson): this book makes an ‘original’ and ‘important’ (or ‘thought-provoking’) contribution to Milton studies. This I affirm and add only that Hampton does this in a lucid prose style that incarnates his superb reading of Milton’s texts in a more virtuous fashion.” —Modern Philology“The strength of this book lies in Hampton’s wide interests in literature, theology, and hermeneutics. . . . Fleshly Tabernacles sets us well on the way toward discovering new registers of meaning in writing that embodies the complex material, spiritual, and political meanings of the Incarnation in seventeenth-century England.” —Renaissance and Reformation

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Book SynopsisPina Palma's Savoring Power, Consuming the Times: The Metaphors of Food in Medieval and Renaissance Italian Literature is an innovative look at the writings of five important Italian authorsBoccaccio's Decameron, Pulci's Morgante, Boiardo's Innamorato, Ariosto's Furioso, and Aretino's Ragionamento. Through the prism of gastronomy, Palma examines these key works in the Western literary canon, bringing into focus how their authors use food and gastronomy as a means to critique the social, political, theological, philosophical, and cultural beliefs that constitute the fabric of the society in which they live. Palma begins with the anthropological principle that food represents the universal transformation of nature into culture and that it functions as a language that distinguishes every society and its culture from others. This suggests that foodits preparation, presentation, and consumptionis more than merely a source of nourishment. RTrade Review"With clarity and wit, Pina Palma has used the central metaphor of food to uncover unexpectedly fresh dimensions of Renaissance intellectual traditions. Her fascinating and original exploration of the connections between food and sexuality, political power, moral hypocrisy, ascetic discipline of the body, and the world of the appetites in a selection of key Italian Renaissance works is sure to engage historians as well as literary scholars." —Giuseppe Mazzotta, Yale University"Savoring Power, Consuming the Times is not simply a book about food in Italian literature. It is a subtle and far-reaching work of criticism, which discloses an original aspect of the Renaissance. Not only does food provide a way of accessing a privileged perspective on the Renaissance religious, philosophical, and moral thinking; but it is also the perfect means of building an unexpected web of relationships between authors." —Salvatore Silvano Nigro, Libera Universita di Lingue e Comunicazione, IULM“This book will be a landmark. . . This richly detailed, consistently fascinating study deepens readers’ understanding of early-modern Italian literature and shows there is much more to literary criticism than the merely literary. Highly recommended.” —Choice“Savoring Power, Consuming the Times studies a group of important literary works of the Italian Renaissance in an attempt to understand the ideological and literary implications of food metaphors. . . . The main thrust of the book remains high literature where the analysis of food metaphors is the key to understanding that culture in its broadest context.” —Renaissance Quarterly“. . . the strength of Palma’s book is the variety of texts considered and the messages she is able to tease out in her analysis. Her weaving of historical context throughout her literary analysis not only supports her themes, but also allows Savoring Power, Consuming the Times to serve as a relevant text for historians, as well as for literary scholars.” —Comitatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies“. . . the reality of this beautiful book is that it analyzes food not only as nourishment but as reference and ‘tool’ used by culture and literature to teach, explain, and critique. Pina Palma’s book is an intriguing read that goes well beyond appearances and brings to light an intricate network of connections that a modern reader would definitely miss without the help of her accurate and well-balanced transversal reading.” —Renaissance and Reformation“In undertaking this broader analysis, Palma illuminates the shared ideas and concerns that link her five authors across three centuries. Her work, then, is more than a simple canonical study. . . . it is a rich and useful work with many fascinating ideas for students of literature, history, philosophy, and cultural theory.” —Sixteenth Century Journal“Pina Palma investigates the representation of food in medieval and Renaissance Italian literature by stressing its metaphorical meanings and its multifaceted connections with language, society, history, politics, power, art, and nature. . . . Savoring Power, Consuming the Times provides a stimulating opportunity to reread some masterpieces of medieval and Renaissance Italian literature through the lens of food, and to discover fascinating, complex, and sometimes overlooked metaphorical meanings.” —Modern Language Review“The volume of Pina Palma presents the analysis of a series of works or Italian literature medieval and early modern age, centered on food and the different implications it entails: the representation of power relations among social groups to ethical evaluation of the reports and human behavior.” —The Medieval Review

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Book SynopsisThe Open Light: Poets from Notre Dame, 1991–2008 celebrates the distinction and diversity of poets associated with the university during these nearly two decades.Trade Review"The principal pleasures of this collection—and rightly so—lie in the richness and diversity of the poems it contains. Varied in style, form, voice, and subject matter, traditional, experimental, centered in the ethnic self, sharply placed in concrete landscapes, or deliberately abstract, they represent the reach, not just of Notre Dame poetry, but of much of recent poetry in America. The Notre Dame connections among these poets invite another kind of tantalizing, speculative reading. There are real commonalities here, a sense throughout that poetry has consequence and gravity in the world and that style is a kind of commitment. Other threads can be followed in autobiographical sketches Orlando Menes has included in the “Statements” section in the Appendix, but whether reading for poetry’s sake or Notre Dame’s Open Light is a treasure." —Michael Anania, University of Illinois at Chicago"The poems in The Open Light are not only good. Beyond the fine work of these many excellent poets, what strikes me is the tremendous diversity of voices and sensibilities represented here. Where else could I find the intricate sonic complexity of the work of Robert Archambeau or Michael Coffey set against the wild, energetic playfulness of Jenny Boully’s experimental forms? What other anthology might include Bei Dao’s lovely, crystalline meditations set against Stacy Cartledge’s or Anthony Walton’s plainspoken, deceptively complex narratives? These poems cover more aesthetic territory than any ten anthologies and are a ringing testimony to the talent and the catholicity of tastes at work at the University of Notre Dame." —Kevin Prufer, The University of Houston“The anthology celebrates the work of 24 poets associated with the University then, including graduates Beth Ann Fennelly ’93, Francisco Aragon ‘03 MFA and Anthony Walton ’82, and faculty members Jacque Vaught Brogan, Seamus Deane and John Wilkinson. A follow up to The Space Between: Poets from Notre Dame, 1950-1990, this updated collection takes its name from a poem by former ND English professor Cornelius Eady.” —Notre Dame Magazine“The new anthology is a follow-up to one published in 1990. . . both books feature poems by writers who either taught at or attended the university. Both volumes aim to display the role that poetry plays at Notre Dame. . . . Menes says that diversity of voices can be seen in the growth of female poets with works featured in The Open Light. The increased diversity reflects the growth in creative writing programs at Notre Dame and other colleges across the nation.” —South Bend Tribune

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Book SynopsisWild Track is a compilation of the best of Kevin Hart’s poetry from eight different collections.Trade Review"Pondus meum amor meus—my weight is my love, writes Augustine, as he describes how love carries him wherever it will. The 'wild track' of Kevin Hart's new and selected poems seems akin to Augustine's path; it is a collection deeply pondered, yet as lightly formed as a new leaf curved by wind. He writes of 'a name within a name' and of 'a darkness in the dark' while everywhere the reader finds the life inside the life. His is a poetry of the 'should have said'—clear-eyed thoughts set to music, speakable only when fear has vanished, set forth without nostalgia or regret." —Susan Stewart"Kevin Hart's poetry is lucid and accessible while giving voice to rich depths where mystery and being coalesce. It approaches the unapproachable, the impossible borders of experience, through praise and song, and sets the everyday experience of the real world in close proximity to a deeper world of spirit." —Michael Brennan, author of The Imageless World"This splendid selection contains Kevin Hart's finest poetry. From the 'Ten Thousand Things' that calm the mind to the double loss of Eurydice we encounter the symbolism of 'Dark Bird,' where it becomes frightening to learn that 'finches are in blossom' either in a poem or a world. Hart's penetrating lucidity is dense with passionate knowledge, the lovely series of new poems entitled 'Sugar' are so lyrical you catch your breath when a sharp edge appears to cut away any sign of sentimentality. Hart is a master craftsman, he needs to be, so that his visionary imagination doesn't brim over—he travels along a wild track to enter the calm recording-time, so the reader's mind can 'move upon silence.' A great poet of the intellect but touched by his knowledge of love and the possibility, these days, of the soul." —Robert Adamson, author of Net Needle"Hart's relationship with the initial singularity that has driven so much of his best work, the 'space between two thoughts,' the 'silence older than the sky,' the darkness 'before God spoke a word,' is quite obviously, and inexorably, changing. At times it feels as if he has been caught between masks in this process but nevertheless, in the heart-rending Lullaby to his stillborn sister that comes late in Wild Track, we are left in no doubt that the poetic power within him still moves." —The Australian"The point of Hart's poetry, it seems, is to speak from the heart about the objects of his contemplation: poetic myth, philosophic ideas, loved ones both living and deceased and love of the Father. . . . What is most striking about Hart's world is the chaos of angels, nature, people, ghosts and home-made rats all jostling for attention in Hart's gaze or heart which is otherwise turned to God." —The Lake"Although [Kevin Hart] has won extravagant praise from Americans such as Charles Simić and Harold Bloom, he remains, to Australian readers, an Australian poet. This 'new and selected' from a university where he once taught is a convenient way to familiarise, or refamilarise, oneself with the nature and range of his achievement so far." —Australian Book Review“Hart’s contemplative mien, his unabashed candor about the Godhead, his conflation of the sacred and secular, his attention to the seamless Benedictine synthesis of spirit and body, brings to mind Thomas Merton and his mystical temperament, though Hart shares much, as well, with Wendell Berry and Gary Snyder, especially their more accessible gaits, the lean, modest, immaculate lines, their devotion and devotionals to the natural world. Blake lurks in these gorgeous lines as well.” —Anglican Theological Review

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The range of contributions is impressive and unprecedented: combined, they amount to what is probably the single most valuable resource for generating new interpretive perspectives on one of the most important works of European literature.” —Vittorio Montemaggi, author of Reading Dante’s “Commedia” as TheologyTable of ContentsPreface: Dante’s Vita nova: A Collaborative Reading, by Zygmunt G. Barański and Heather Webb Vita nova I-IV [1-2.5]: Introduction, by Claire E. Honess Vita nova I [1.1], by Brian F. Richardson Vita nova II [1.2-10], by Ruth Chester Vita nova III [1.12-2.2], by Federica Pich Vita nova IV [2.3-5], by Matthew Treherne Vita nova V-XII [2.6-5]: Introduction, by Catherine Keen Vita nova V and VI [2.6–2.11], by Catherine Keen Vita nova VII [2.12-18], by Jennifer Rushworth Vita nova VIII [3], by Daragh O’Connell Vita nova IX [4], by Sophie V. Fuller Vita nova X and XI [5.1-7], by Giulia Gaimari Vita nova XII [5.8-24], by Emily Kate Price Vita nova XIII-XVIII [6-10.11]: Not Just a Passing Phase, by Manuele Gragnolati, Elena Lombardi, and Francesca Southerden Vita nova XIII [6], by Rebecca Bowen Vita nova XIV [7], by Nicolò Crisafi Vita nova XV [8], by Lachlan Hughes Vita nova XVI [9], by Franco Costantini Vita nova XVII-XVIII [10.1-11], by David Bowe Vita nova XIX-XXIV [10.12-15]: Introduction, by Tristan Kay Vita nova XIX [10.12-33], by Filippo Gianferrari Vita nova XX [11], by Simon Gilson Vita nova XXI [12], by Rebekah Locke Vita nova XXII [13], by Luca Lombardo Vita nova XXIII [14], by Peter Dent Vita nova XXIV [15], by George Ferzoco Vita nova XXV-XXVII [16-18]: Literature as Truth, by Paola Nasti Vita nova XXV [16], by Rebecca Bowen Vita nova XXVI [17], by Marco Grimaldi Vita nova XXVII [18], by David G. Lummus Vita nova XXVIII-XXXIV [19-23]: The Poetics of a New Affective Community, by Heather Webb Vita nova XXVIII [19.1-3], by Helena Phillips-Robins Vita nova XXIX [19.4-7], by Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė Vita nova XXX [19.8-10], by Alessia Carrai Vita nova XXXI [20], by Ryan Pepin Vita nova XXXII [21], by Valentina Mele Vita nova XXXIII [22], by Katherine Powlesland Vita nova XXXIV [23], by Katherine Powlesland Vita nova XXXV-XXXIX [24-28]: Introduction, by Simon Gilson Vita nova XXXV [24], by Federica Coluzzi Vita nova XXXVI-XXXVII [25-26], by K. P. Clarke Vita nova XXXVIII-XXXIX [27-28], by Nicolò Maldina Vita nova XL-XLII [29-31]: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by Theodore J. Cachey Jr Vita nova XL [29], by Chiara Sbordoni Vita nova XLI [30], by Lorenzo Dell’Oso Vita nova XLII [31], by Anne C. Leone Bibliography List of contributors Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“The range of contributions is impressive and unprecedented: combined, they amount to what is probably the single most valuable resource for generating new interpretive perspectives on one of the most important works of European literature.” —Vittorio Montemaggi, author of Reading Dante’s “Commedia” as TheologyTable of ContentsPreface: Dante’s Vita nova: A Collaborative Reading, by Zygmunt G. Barański and Heather Webb Vita nova I-IV [1-2.5]: Introduction, by Claire E. Honess Vita nova I [1.1], by Brian F. Richardson Vita nova II [1.2-10], by Ruth Chester Vita nova III [1.12-2.2], by Federica Pich Vita nova IV [2.3-5], by Matthew Treherne Vita nova V-XII [2.6-5]: Introduction, by Catherine Keen Vita nova V and VI [2.6–2.11], by Catherine Keen Vita nova VII [2.12-18], by Jennifer Rushworth Vita nova VIII [3], by Daragh O’Connell Vita nova IX [4], by Sophie V. Fuller Vita nova X and XI [5.1-7], by Giulia Gaimari Vita nova XII [5.8-24], by Emily Kate Price Vita nova XIII-XVIII [6-10.11]: Not Just a Passing Phase, by Manuele Gragnolati, Elena Lombardi, and Francesca Southerden Vita nova XIII [6], by Rebecca Bowen Vita nova XIV [7], by Nicolò Crisafi Vita nova XV [8], by Lachlan Hughes Vita nova XVI [9], by Franco Costantini Vita nova XVII-XVIII [10.1-11], by David Bowe Vita nova XIX-XXIV [10.12-15]: Introduction, by Tristan Kay Vita nova XIX [10.12-33], by Filippo Gianferrari Vita nova XX [11], by Simon Gilson Vita nova XXI [12], by Rebekah Locke Vita nova XXII [13], by Luca Lombardo Vita nova XXIII [14], by Peter Dent Vita nova XXIV [15], by George Ferzoco Vita nova XXV-XXVII [16-18]: Literature as Truth, by Paola Nasti Vita nova XXV [16], by Rebecca Bowen Vita nova XXVI [17], by Marco Grimaldi Vita nova XXVII [18], by David G. Lummus Vita nova XXVIII-XXXIV [19-23]: The Poetics of a New Affective Community, by Heather Webb Vita nova XXVIII [19.1-3], by Helena Phillips-Robins Vita nova XXIX [19.4-7], by Aistė Kiltinavičiūtė Vita nova XXX [19.8-10], by Alessia Carrai Vita nova XXXI [20], by Ryan Pepin Vita nova XXXII [21], by Valentina Mele Vita nova XXXIII [22], by Katherine Powlesland Vita nova XXXIV [23], by Katherine Powlesland Vita nova XXXV-XXXIX [24-28]: Introduction, by Simon Gilson Vita nova XXXV [24], by Federica Coluzzi Vita nova XXXVI-XXXVII [25-26], by K. P. Clarke Vita nova XXXVIII-XXXIX [27-28], by Nicolò Maldina Vita nova XL-XLII [29-31]: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, by Theodore J. Cachey Jr Vita nova XL [29], by Chiara Sbordoni Vita nova XLI [30], by Lorenzo Dell’Oso Vita nova XLII [31], by Anne C. Leone Bibliography List of contributors Index

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Book Synopsis This volume provides a generic description, based on a formal analysis of narrative structures, of the Middle English noncyclic verse romances. As a group, these poems have long resisted generic definition and are traditionally considered to be a conglomerate of unrelated tales held together in a historical matrix of similar themes and characters. As single narratives, they are thought of as random collections of events loosely structured in chronological succession. Susan Wittig, however, offers evidence that the romances are carefully ordered (although not always consciously so) according to a series of formulaic patterns and that their structures serve as vehicles for certain essential cultural patterns and are important to the preservation of some community-held beliefs. The analysis begins on a stylistic level, and the same theoretical principles applied to the linguistic formulas of the poems also serve as a model for the study of narrative structures. The author findTable of Contents Acknowledgments Note to the reader Introduction 1. Problems of stylistic analysis in the Middle English romance 2. Larger structural units: the motifeme 3. Larger structural units: the type-scene 4. Larger structural units: the type-episode 5. Speculations and conclusions Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Those interested in Indian religions, bhakti and the formation of mod-ern Hinduism, the history of literatures and languages in South Asia, the emergence of a public sphere and early modernity, and the relationship of images to literature willfind this volume particularly rewarding." * History of Religions *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Notes on Texts, Transliterations, and Dates Introduction: Rādhā-Krishna Devotion in Kishangarh 1. Soldiers Marching: Kishangarh at the Crossroads 2. Gods and Saints Relocated: Sectarian Rivalries and Hinduism in the Making 3. Devotees on the Move: The Pilgrim’s Bliss 4. Legends Mobilized: Garland of Stories and Songs 5. Myth Retold: Garland of Rāma’s Romance Conclusion: Pilgrimage, Hagiography, and Scripture Notes Bibliography List of Illustrations Index

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Book SynopsisA facsimile edition of fourteen autograph letters of John Donne. It features letters dating from February and March 1602, which relate to Donne's clandestine marriage to Anne More and are addressed to his father-in-law, Sir George More, and to Sir Thomas Egerton, the lord keeper, who was also Donne's employer.Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionA Note on Transcriptions, Reproductions, and Donne's Heraldic SealsTranscriptionsJohn Donne to Sir George More, February 2, 1602John Donne to Sir George More, February 11, 1602John Donne to Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, February 12, 1602John Donne to Sir George More, February 13, 1602John Donne to Lord Keeper Thomas Egerton, February 13, 1602John Donne to Lord Keeper Thomas Egerton, February [ca. 15], 1602Christopher Brooke to Lord Keeper Thomas Egerton, February 25, 1602John Donne to Sir George More, March 1, 1602John Donne to Lord Keeper Thomas Egerton, March 1, 1602Decree of Richard Swale, LL.D., Court of Audience, Canterbury, April 27, 1602John Donne's Receipt for £100 from Lord Keeper Thomas Egerton, July 6, 1602John Donne to Sir Robert More, February 7, 1612John Donne to Sir Robert More, July 28, 1614John Donne to Sir Robert More, August 10, 1614John Donne to Sir George More, December 3, 1614John Donne's Epitaph for Anne Donne, August 15, 1617John Donne to Sir Henry Wotten, July 12, 1925John Donne to Sir George More, June 22, 1629Reproductions of the DocumentsCurator's Afterword

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Book SynopsisProvides and analyzes examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writersTrade Review"An important addition to the study of Ming-Qing women [that]…ground[s] the study of poetic images and syntax in the contexts of women’s experience as readers, writers, and historical agents." -- Wai-yee Li * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Xiaorong Li’s book opens up this lost world for readers. . . . This book offers an insightful peep into the inner chambers of late-imperial China. It is just as suitable for general readers as it is for those who have foundational knowledge of Chinese history and literature. . . . [A]n enjoyable introduction to Chinese women’s history." -- Queenie Kwan Yee Lo * New England Journal of History *"[A]n illuminating study of Chinese women’s poetry from the late Ming to the early Republic, focusing on the trope of the gui (“boudoir” or “inner quarters”). . . . In giving sensitive translations and insightful commentaries on this “boudoir” poetr, Xiaorong Li has demonstrated its relevance far beyond the inner quarters in documenting three centuries of women’s participation in social, political and cultural change." -- Paul S. Ropp * The China Quarterly *"The book successfully shows the manifold significance of the poetics of the gui, which fills a gap in Western scholarship on women poets in late imperial China. . . . A valuable addition to the field of gender studies and the field of traditional Chinese poetry and poetics." -- Ji Hao * Ming Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. The Green Window | The Boudoir in Poetic Convention 2. A New Feminine Ideal | The Case of The Anthology of Correct Beginnings 3. Convention and Intervention | The Lyrical World of Gu Zhenli 4. Inside Out | The Gui in Times of Chaos 5. The Old Boudoir and the “New Woman” | The Late Qing and Early Republican Era Conclusion Notes Glossary of Chinese Characters Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisProvides and analyzes examples of poetic themes, motifs, and imagery associated with the inner chambers by increasingly aware and sophisticated women writersTrade Review"An important addition to the study of Ming-Qing women [that]…ground[s] the study of poetic images and syntax in the contexts of women’s experience as readers, writers, and historical agents." -- Wai-yee Li * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *"Xiaorong Li’s book opens up this lost world for readers. . . . This book offers an insightful peep into the inner chambers of late-imperial China. It is just as suitable for general readers as it is for those who have foundational knowledge of Chinese history and literature. . . . [A]n enjoyable introduction to Chinese women’s history." -- Queenie Kwan Yee Lo * New England Journal of History *"[A]n illuminating study of Chinese women’s poetry from the late Ming to the early Republic, focusing on the trope of the gui (“boudoir” or “inner quarters”). . . . In giving sensitive translations and insightful commentaries on this “boudoir” poetr, Xiaorong Li has demonstrated its relevance far beyond the inner quarters in documenting three centuries of women’s participation in social, political and cultural change." -- Paul S. Ropp * The China Quarterly *"The book successfully shows the manifold significance of the poetics of the gui, which fills a gap in Western scholarship on women poets in late imperial China. . . . A valuable addition to the field of gender studies and the field of traditional Chinese poetry and poetics." -- Ji Hao * Ming Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. The Green Window | The Boudoir in Poetic Convention 2. A New Feminine Ideal | The Case of The Anthology of Correct Beginnings 3. Convention and Intervention | The Lyrical World of Gu Zhenli 4. Inside Out | The Gui in Times of Chaos 5. The Old Boudoir and the “New Woman” | The Late Qing and Early Republican Era Conclusion Notes Glossary of Chinese Characters Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn the early twentieth century, most Chinese immigrants coming to the United States were detained at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. This book tells these immigrants' stories while underscoring their relevance to contemporary immigration issues.Trade Review"During the time they spent on the island, as little as a few days, as long as three years, [immigrants] carved and ink-brushed their concerns onto the walls of their barracks. One hundred thirty-five calligraphic poems survived, first discovered by a Federal park ranger after Angel Island was abandoned in 1940. Together with the interviews, the poems — angry, heroic, wrenchingly forlorn, despairing, provocative, resistant — convey, as no secondhand or thirdhand account could ever do, what it was like to be Chinese and to be on Angel Island." * New York Times *"More than two decades ago, the first edition of Island brought the plight of Chinese immigrants in America to the academic forefront through the poetry they left behind at Angel Island. The updated and recently published second edition expands that focus with more poems, interviews, archival photos and an enhanced discussion of historical context….The resulting tome is sure to be a touchstone for Chinese and Asian American Studies for generations to come…. As our nation continues to be a mecca for impoverished people from other countries, Angel Island reminds us to check our attitudes and policies toward immigration, because for all the benefits of being a multicultural and democratic nation there are myriad untold costs." -- Misa Shikuma * International Examiner *"It reclaims the migration history of ordinary Chinese Americans. . . . Poignant testimony to what it meant to be Chinese in America at the beginning of the twentieth century." -- Elena Barabantseva * Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies *

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Book SynopsisTitus Lucretius Carus (ca 99-55 BC) is known primarily as the Roman author of the long didactic poem ""De Rerum Natura"" (""On the Nature of Things""). In it, he set out to explicate the universe, embracing and refuting ideas of the Greek philosophers. This Latin text features an introduction to Lucretius' life and work.Trade ReviewA volume which no student of Lucretius, of the classics, of philosophic literature can afford to ignore. - Paul Friedlander, American Journal of Philology (1945) ""For students approaching Lucretius this remains the only commentary in English on the entire work in one volume. Leonard's passionate introduction is a signal milestone in the history of the poem's reception, while the notes in Smith's commentary are a helpful guide to interpretation."" - Peter Knox, editor of Oxford Readings in Ovid ""A tremendous amount of material which will undoubtedly prove of great value to the students of Lucretius."" - Phillip de Lacy, Classical Philology (1943)

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Book SynopsisAvailable once more, this is a comprehensive, comparative literary philological examination of two enduring bodies of love poetry from the ancient Near East.

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Book SynopsisUsing feminist and psychoanalytic approaches to examine the ""female voice"" in the ""Heroides"", Sara H. Lindheim closely reads these fictive letters. She points out that in Ovid's verse epistles all the women represent themselves in a strikingly similar and disjointed fashion.Trade ReviewOpens up whole new vistas of interpretation within Heroides scholarship. - Micaela W. Janan, Duke University

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Book SynopsisOlga Sedakova stands out among contemporary Russian poets for the integrity, erudition, intellectual force, and moral courage of her writing. This first collection of scholarly essays on her work in English assesses her contributions as a poet and thinker, presenting far-reaching accounts of broad themes and patterns of thought across her writings.Trade ReviewA comprehensive overview of Olga Sedakova's poetry and thought that will be an essential resource for anyone interested in this poet and, more broadly, in contemporary Russian culture."" - Barry Scherr, Dartmouth CollegeTable of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments A Note on Transliteration and Sources Introduction Stephanie Sandler Ways of Seeing the Poet and Her Poems If This Is Not a Garden: Olga Sedakova and the Unfinished Work of Creation Benjamin Paloff The Poet and Darkness: The Politics of Artistic Form Ksenia Golubovich (translated from Russian by Philip Redko) Childhood and Vibrant Stasis in Olga Sedakova’s Poetry Emily R. Grosholz The Guest at the Door: The Poetry of Olga Sedakova Aleksandr Kutyrkin (translated from Russian by Bethany Braley) Constricted Freedom: On Dreams and Rhythms in the Poetry of Olga Sedakova Stephanie Sandler Theology, Philosophy, and Modes of Knowing Sedakova’s Book of Hours and the Devotional Lyric: Reading “Fifth Stanzas” Andrew Kahn The Art of Change: Adaptation and the Apophatic Tradition in Sedakova’s Chinese Journey Martha M. F. Kelly Disruption of Disruption: The Orthodox Christian Impulse in the Works of Nikolai Zabolotsky and Olga Sedakova Sarah Pratt The Topography of the Other World in Olga Sedakova’s Poetics Ketevan Megrelishvili (translated from Russian by Maria Vassileva) The Immanence of Transcendence: Poetic Reflections on the Mystical Aspects of Olga Sedakova’s Lyric Poetry Henrieke Stahl (translated from German by Philipp Penka) Contextual Readings: Languages, Cultures, Sources Stylized Folklore as a Recollection of Europe: Olga Sedakova’s Old Songs and Alexander Pushkin’s Songs of the Western Slavs Ilya Kukulin (translated from Russian by Ainsley Morse) The Poetic Anthropology of Olga Sedakova: In Dialogue with Sergei Averintsev and Boris Pasternak Vera Pozzi (translated from Italian by Gabriella A. Ferrari) The Semantic Vertical: Church Slavonic Heritage and Olga Sedakova’s Poetics of Translation Maria Khotimsky Olga Sedakova’s Journey through The Book of Changes Natalia Chernysh (translated from Russian by Sarah Vitali) Afterword On Olga Sedakova and Poetic Thinking David Bethea Chronology Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisIn this stunning debut collection, Jameka Williams offers a deeply personal investigation into how Americans (herself included) have been duped, buying into classism, sexism, and racist beauty ideals, while sacrificing the freedom of self-love and self-determination.Trade Review“Every now and then, but rarely, a book of poems comes along that is biblical in its authority and iconoclastic in its capacity to rearrange or explode the furniture, the nation, and the self. American Sex Tape™ is one of those.”—Diane Seuss, author of frank: sonnets“Split between a love of watching and the fear created by it, Jameka Williams demolishes misogynist, racist logic with weaponized line breaks and wrecking-ball wit. And then does something stranger, braver: she looks into the camera. Because this is a book about taking back power, it’s also about the thin line between pleasure and collusion. ‘I love to see it,’ she admits, ‘I love to live inside that camera’s orgasm.’ Complex and messy and necessary in all the ways sex is, American Sex Tape™ is brilliant Black feminist truth.”—Brian Teare “A triumph of a debut. Part cultural criticism, part self-investigation, Williams defies genre convention. Her poems burst onto the page with purpose, veracity, tenacity, and the self-assuredness of a long-established literary dynamo.”—Laura Joyce-Hubbard, TriQuarterlyTable of Contents American Sex Cento Scopophilia “People are dying, Kim” Intelligent Women Brief Notes on the End of the World, Women The All-American Girl “But maybe boredom is erotic, when women do it, for men” Plastic White Girl I Intend to Outlast Consider an Animal Ignition “There’s a lot of baggage that comes with us, but it’s like Louis Vuitton baggage (you always want it)” Black, or Apologies for the Line “Sally Hemings in Leggings” The All-American Girl New Black Venus My Sister Says (“Everyone can catch this smoke”) Original Sin The Kardashians for a Better America American Sex Tape Black, or Even Now I Eat Like a Butcher’s Dog Birth of the Nation Scopophobia I’m Not the Queen of the Selfie Woman Devours His Gaze This World Is Not Good Black, or I Sit on My Front Porch in the Projects, Waiting, on God Erotic Women Do It “Now that I’ve survived, when does living begin?” The Future Is Female Black, or There Is No Nation Both Under God & Above Ground Who Will Save Kim Kardashian? I Intend to Outlast War & Marriage The All-American Girl #Free Britney, Brittany, BritnÉe & Brittani, Too Black, or The Natural World Doesn’t Know Me Nothing Is Promised “I can’t dwell?!?” The New Me The All-American Girl “The new american girl doll is no longer a slave” Since I Laid My Burden Down Acknowledgments Notes

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Book SynopsisBy the time the Roman poet Valerius Flaccus wrote in the first century CE, the tale of Jason and his famous ship had been retold so often it was a byword for poetic banality. Why, then, did Valerius construct his epic Argonautica? Jessica Blum-Sorensen argues that it was precisely the myth’s overplayed nature that appealed to Valerius.Trade ReviewThis exciting new study of Valerius Flaccus’ Argonautica brings out the richness of this often underrated poem, showing its political sophistication and its importance for understanding the culture of Roman exemplarity. Anyone interested in Roman epic and its development should read this for an astute overview of the generic complexity and a balanced assessment of Valerius’ politics." - Helen Lovatt, author of The Epic Gaze: Vision, Gender and Narrative in Ancient Epic "Blum-Sorensen’s focus on the ambivalence of mimetic behavior allows for a middle path between optimistic and pessimistic readings of Valerius’ Argonautica. This is an original and compelling interpretation, one that enhances our understanding of Valerius’ text and the politics of Latin epic more broadly." - Tim Stover, author of Epic and Empire in Vespasianic Rome: A New Reading of Valerius Flaccus’ArgonauticaTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Conflicting Agendas 2. Hercules in the Jovian Age 3. Exemplary Translation 4. Juno’s Tragedy 5. Mistaken Identities 6. Through the Looking Glass 7. Rome Refracted Conclusion References Index Index Locorum

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Book SynopsisFrom one of today's keenest critics comes a collection of essays on poetry, religion, and the connection between the two Adam Kirsch is one of today's finest literary critics. This collection brings together his essays on poetry, religion, and the intersections between them, with a particular focus on Jewish literature. He explores the definition of Jewish literature, the relationship between poetry and politics, and the future of literary reputation in the age of the internet. Several essays look at the way Jewish writers such as Stefan Zweig and Isaac Deutscher, who coined the phrase the non-Jewish Jew, have dealt with politics. Kirsch also examines questions of spirituality and morality in the writings of contemporary poets, including Christian Wiman, Kay Ryan, and Seamus Heaney. He closes by asking why so many American Jewish writers have resisted that category, inviting us to consider Is there such a thing as Jewish literature?Trade Review“From one of our most distinguished public intellectuals and an indispensable voice on matters literary and spiritual, Adam Kirsch’s collection of essays on poetry and religion shows him at his very best.”—David Mikics, author of Slow Reading in a Hurried Age

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Book SynopsisA reflection on Federico García Lorca's life, his haunting death, and the fame that reinvigorated the marvelous in the modern worldTrade Review“Brilliant and meticulously researched.”—Luis Fernández Cifuentes, Times Literary Supplement“Valis is adept at exposing the ins and outs of powerful but slippery concepts. Was Lorca… Spain’s “poet of the people”, as both the right and left claimed?” —Luis Fernandez Cifuentes, Times Literary Supplement2023 PROSE Award winner in the Literature category“A galaxy of critical insights into the cultural shock waves circling and crisscrossing Lorca’s execution and his unknown resting place, there is not a single book on Lorca like this one.”—Andrés Zamora, Vanderbilt University“An example of cultural history at its best, Valis’s superbly written exploration of Lorca’s contested afterlives demonstrates once again why she is our leading scholar of modern Spanish letters.”—Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Columbia University“Noël Valis elucidates the enduring appeal of the great Andalusian writer. Arguing that the bold nature of his gifts could not have been adequately appreciated in his brief life, she maintains that only the vastness of death can accommodate our growing understanding of Lorca’s innovative accomplishments.”—Jaime Manrique, author of Eminent Maricones

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Book SynopsisA new collection of essays by the legendary literary scholar and critic.

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Book SynopsisNobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda wrote often about the natural world and the beloved objects he surrounded himself with.

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Book SynopsisA groundbreaking anthology containing the work of poets who have witnessed war, imprisonment, torture, and slavery.Trade Review"The selections are blazing and haunting, poems of fierce precision, communal consciousness, courage, and reverberating beauty, and Forche and Wu succinctly establish the historical context for each poet's work in glinting biographical essays." -- Donna Seaman "[A] testament to the travails of men and women over the last 500 years, collected and curated with infinite care." -- Valerie Ryan "Argues for the importance of a public-spirited poetry, willing to speak the truth to power." -- Robyn Creswell

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Book SynopsisA window onto the lives of the Romantic poets through the re-creation of one legendary night in 1817.Trade Review"Engrossing account..." -- The Bookseller

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Book SynopsisAn engaging, intimate portrait of Emily Dickinson that sheds new light on her ground-breaking poetry.Trade Review"Martha Ackmann is a rare scholar. She is steeped in her subject's work, but also fills her book with the light and sounds of Dickinson's home. Dickinson is at once the most mysterious and yet most accessible of American poets, and she led what has been called the most remarkable unremarkable life in American letters. Ackmann does justice to this creative paradox in her warm and stirring book." -- Cullen Murphy - The Atlantic

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Book SynopsisBy examining the family and financial circumstances of Wordsworth's early years, this illuminating biography reshapes our understanding of the great Romantic poet's most creative period of life and writing. Features new research into Wordsworth's financial situation, and into how the poet and his family survived financially Offers a new understanding of the role of his great unwritten poem The Recluse' Presents a new assessment of the relationship between Wordsworth and Coleridge Trade Review“John Worthen’s engaging new biography of Wordsworth begins by quoting the poet’s recollection of himself at around the age of 10, surveying tall trees, black chasms, and dizzy crags: ‘I loved to stand and & read j Their looks forbidding’, he says, ‘read & disobey’ (p. 3). . . Worthen’s book is a revealing account of the consequences of that daring.” (The Review of English Studies, 15 October 2014)Table of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Acknowledgments x Abbreviations and Texts xii Foreword: “The Prelude”: A Poem of My Own Life? xvii Part I Early Years 1 1 Versions of Home: 1770–83 3 2 Hawkshead and Esthwaite: 1783–7 18 3 Cambridge: 1787–90 37 4 To the Alps: and What Followed: 1790–1 53 5 Annette Vallon, Michel de Beaupuy, and the Bishop of Llandaff: 1791–3 69 Part II Writer 91 6 Salisbury Plain and its Consequences: 1793–5 93 7 Racedown: 1795–7 113 8 Coleridge and Alfoxton: 1797–8 135 9 Lyrical Ballads: 1798 157 10 Hamburg to the Harz: 1798 173 11 Writing in Goslar: 1798–9 183 12 Sockburn to Grasmere: 1799–1800 198 Part III Town-End 213 13 “Home at Grasmere,” the “Ode,” “Michael”: 1800–1 215 14 Hurting: 1800–1 241 15 Marrying: 1801–2 249 16 Grasmere to Calais and on to Gallow Hill: 1802 265 17 Marriage, First Child, and the Trip to Scotland: 1802–3 284 18 “The Prelude” I: 1804 303 19 “The Prelude” II: 1804–5 315 20 “Elegiac Stanzas,” Poems, in Two Volumes: 1806–7 328 Part IV The Light of Common Day 341 21 “The Recluse” and The Convention of Cintra: 1808–9 343 22 Loss and Grief: 1809–12 356 23 Stamp-officer and Poet of The Excursion: 1812–14 368 24 “What though it be past”: 1814 387 Part V Sketches of Late Years 397 25 Poetry, Family, and Polemic: 1815–18 399 26 Peter Bell and “the ghosts of what they were”: 1819–26 407 27 “The Recluse” and “The Prelude”: 1827–33 418 28 The Past Enshrined: 1834–42 429 29 No Resting Place: 1843–50 439 Afterword 447 Bibliography 451 Index 457

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Book Synopsis* A concise, accessible guide to understanding and appreciating the works of John Milton. * Presents new and authoritative essays by internationally respected Milton scholars. * Explains how and why Milton's works established their central place in the English literary canon.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors ix Introduction 1Angelica Duran Part I Surveys 1 A Reading of His "left hand": Milton's Prose 7Robert Thomas Fallon 2 "Shedding sweet influence": The Legacy of John Milton's Works 25John T. Shawcross 3 "The world all before [us]": More than Three Hundred Years of Criticism 43Roy Flannagan Part II Textual Sites 4 First and Last Fruits of Education: The Companion Poems, Epistola, and Educational Prose Works 61Angelica Duran 5 Milton's Heroic Sonnets 78Annabel Patterson 6 The Lives of Lycidas 95Paul Alpers 7 A Mask: Tradition and Innovation 111Katsuhiro Engetsu 8 The Bible, Religion, and Spirituality in Paradise Lost 128Achsah Guibbory 9 Gender, Sex, and Marriage in Paradise 144Karen L. Edwards 10 The Ecology of Paradise Lost 161Juliet Lucy Cummins 11 The Messianic Vision of Paradise Regained 178David Gay 12 The Nightmare of History: Samson Agonistes 197Louis Schwartz Part III Reference Points Select Chronology: "Speak of things at hand/ Useful" 217Edward Jones Select Bibliography: "Much arguing, much writing, many opinions" 235J. Martin Evans Index 270

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Book SynopsisReading Shakespeare's Poetry A lively exploration of Shakespeare's poems and how they speak to readers Reading Shakespeare's Poetry presents a fresh interpretation of Shakespeare's non-dramatic poems, providing insights into the individual poems, their themes and composition, and their relation to the cultural context of Shakespeare's world. Dympna Callaghan considers what makes Shakespeare's language poetic and shows how his poetry is comprised not only of lyrical intensity but also of the language of everyday life. Presented chronologically, lucidly-written chapters examine Venus and Adonis, Lucrece, The Phoenix and the Turtle, the Sonnets, and A Lover's Complaint. Special attention is paid to the distinctive ways in which lineation, rhyme, verse forms, and meter serve to delineate or erase the boundaries of Shakespeare's poetry. Throughout the book, the author explains how Shakespeare's language is influenced by predecessors such asTable of ContentsAcknowledgments viii Introduction 1 1 Venus and Adonis 25 2 Lucrece 82 3 The Phoenix and the Turtle 129 4 Shakespeare’s Sonnets 159 5 A Lover’s Complaint 209 Conclusion 240 Bibiography 251 Index 262

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Book SynopsisBrings together Marilyn Krysl’s essays on the origins of language and poetry, poetic form, the poetry of witness, and poetry’s collaboration with the healing arts. Beginning with pieces on her own origins as a poet, she branches into poetry’s profound spiritual and political possibilities, drawing on rich examples from poets such as Anna Akhmatova, W.S. Merwin, and Vénus Khoury-Ghata.

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Book SynopsisGathers Rigoberto González's most important essays and book reviews that consider the work of emerging poets whose identities and political positions are transforming what readers expect from contemporary poetry. Many of these voices represent intersectional communities, such as queer writers of colour, and many writers have deep connections to their Latino communities.

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Book SynopsisProvides the first English verse translation of one of the most extraordinary poems of the Greek literary tradition, the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis. The Dionysiaca is by far the longest poem surviving from the classical world, a massive mythological epic stretching to over 20,000 lines, written in the tradition of Homer.Table of Contents Editors’ Preface: William Levitan and Stanley Lombardo Acknowledgments Introduction: Gordon Braden Summary of the Poem The Poem Book 1:Douglass Parker Book 2:Douglass Parker Book 2 (continued):William Levitan Book 3:Joseph Harrington Book 4:Judith Roitman Book 5:Rob Turner Book 6:Brian Walters Book 7:Christian Teresi Book 8:Frederick Ahl Book 9:Anne Shaw Book 10:Michael Shaw Book 11:Darwin Michener-Rutledge Book 12:John L. Gronbeck-Tedesco Book 13:Mike Lala Book 14:Michael B. Lippman Book 15:John L. Gronbeck-Tedesco Book 16:Rachel Hadas Book 17:Catherine Anderson Book 18:Tessa Cavagnero Book 19:Sheila H. Murnaghan Book 20:Andrew W. Barrett Book 21:Zachary Puckett Book 22:Richard Jenkyns Book 23:Anne Carson Book 24:Gordon Braden Book 25:Alex Dressler Book 26:Darwin Michener-Rutledge Book 27:Melina McClure Book 28:Denise Low and Eileen R. Tabios Book 29:Adrienne Atkins Book 30:Alison R. Parker Book 31:David Fredrick and Rachel Murray Book 32:Joseph Harrington Book 33:Adrienne Atkins Book 34:Anna Mayersohn Book 35:Maryrose Larkin Book 36:Rebekah Curry Book 37:Jonathan Mayhew Book 38:Denise Low Book 39:Anthony Corbeill Book 40:Deborah H. Roberts Book 41:Diane Arnson Svarlien Book 42:Charles-Elizabeth Boyles Book 43:Bethany Christiansen Book 44:Tessa Cavagnero Book 45:Anna Mayersohn Book 46:Melina McClure Book 47:Cyrus Console Book 48:Stanley Lombardo On Translating Nonnus Notes on Contributors Suggestions for Further Reading Glossary of Personal Names

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Book SynopsisAs the most widely read Roman poem in antiquity, the Aeneid was indelibly burned into the memories of generations of Roman school children. In her new book, Yasmin Syed analyses the formative influence the poem exerted on its broad audience of educated Romans.

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Book SynopsisThe latest book of critical prose from renowned poet and scholar of Jewish literature Norman Finkelstein. Through a rigorous examination of contemporary poetry, poetics, and poets like Helen Adam, Nathaniel Mackey, Donald Revel, and more, the text exhibits a poetic fascination with transcendence and radical delight at language.Trade Review“For decades, Norman Finkelstein has mined the deep interiority of fellow poets for whom writing extends beyond creative expression and cultural commentary into the realm of the spirit. In To Go into the Words, he continues his groundbreaking work by exploring the visionary poetics of writers as varied as Helen Adam, Michael Palmer, and Nathaniel Mackey. What makes this book—and Finkelstein’s work as a whole—stand out is that in chapter after chapter we see the Philosopher’s Stone being polished by someone who knows that the most engaging criticism is, in fact, a form of celebration.”—Derek Pollard, Founder of Constellar Creative“Finkelstein, one of our most perceptive poet-critics, gives us masterful readings of important contemporary poets in essays that integrate his decades-long conversation with their work. The last sections examine the gnostic impulse in poetry and commentary of secular Jewish poets, including Finkelstein himself, that leads them, through language, to ‘circle around some. . . absent center which still has compelling power.’”—Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. is a poet, translator, and corporate consultant. Her most recent book of poetry is Salient (New Directions 2020).“We approach truth, said Gershom Scholem, not by systems but by commentary. In these essays on an array of poets ranging from William Bronk to Nathaniel Mackey, Norman Finkelstein provides commentary informed by a host of systems—deconstruction, the New Criticism, Freudian psychoanalysis, Marxian materialism, and more. Standing above them all is the idea of gnosis, the quest for insight into who we are and who we might become. And, in Finkelstein’s comments on midrash, we find the best commentary yet on Finkelstein’s own poetry. Open this book and open the world.”—Robert Archambau, author of Poetry and Uselessness from Coleridge to Ashbery and Alice B. Toklas is MissingTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction William Bronk Helen Adam Ronald Johnson Michael Palmer Nathaniel Mackey Paul Bray Lawrence Joseph Total Midrash Secular Jewish Culture and Its Radical Poetic Discontents The Master of Turning

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Book SynopsisSets the work of contemporary American poetry within the streams of migration that have made the nation what it is in the 21st century. This book outlines the dilemmas that face modern immigrant poets, including how to make a place for oneself in a new society and how to write poetry in a time of violence worldwide.

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Book SynopsisGrace Schulman's poetry is often about joy, the celebration of the miraculous, and the birth of beauty from adversity. This book discusses how she became a writer, with influences ranging from her aunt Helen, who leapt from a tower in Poland, to childhood memories of her father reading to her in a foreign language.

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“I earnestly recommend [it] to everyone who is serious about poetry today… The Editor, Donald Hall, one of the most sensitive chroniclers and curators of modern poetry, has gathered statements on poetry and poetics from a wide range of our most highly regarded living poets.” – Judson Jerome, Writer’s Digest

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Book SynopsisWhen he was a homesteader in Alaska, poet John Haines moved away from language and institutions to an older and simpler existence. In solitude, listening to his own voice, the events of his life reached into the past and the future.'

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Book SynopsisA survey of the empowering poetry of politically active women in El Salvador, South Africa, and the United States.

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