Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book Synopsis'A woman can make an average man great, and a great man average' Robert BurnsThe very best from Scotland's finest lyrical poet.

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Book SynopsisReading Poetry with College and University Students aims to help faculty foster students' intellectual and aesthetic engagement with poems while enabling them to sharpen critical and creative thinking skills. Reading authors across history and the globe--such as Julia Alvarez, Amiri Baraka, Gwendolyn Brooks, Mahmoud Darwish, John Donne, Paolo Javier, Yusef Komunyakaa, Audre Lorde, and Wislawa Szymborska--Thomas Fink zeroes in on how learners can surmount and even enjoy tackling the most difficult aspects of poetry. By exploring students' emotional identification with speakers and characters of poems as well as poets themselves, Fink shows how an instructor can motivate students to produce effective and empathic interpretations. Through divergent readings of selected poems, the book addresses the influence of various theoretical paradigms, ranging from ecological, psychological, feminist, and queer theory to deconstructive, postcolonial, and surface reading orientations. InstructTrade ReviewA wonderful introduction for those that teach as well as study poetry. Fink thoughtfully guides the reader through poetry-phobia by working through the ostensible emotional complexity and intellectual difficulty of a form with which many readers struggle. In a series of accessible and enjoyable chapters, Fink never oversells the pleasures of poetry and instead foregrounds dynamic techniques for fostering discussion in the seminar setting. Alongside clear reviews of current theoretical interpretive approaches and vibrant definitions of key literary terms, Fink engages an extensive body of poets from Shakespeare and George Herbert, to Amiri Baraka and Audre Lorde, Denise Duhamel and Evie Shockley. Essential reading for all teachers of poetry. * Emma Mason, Professor and Head of English and Comparative Literary Studies, University of Warwick, UK *With great erudition and a wealth of encyclopedic knowledge, expert teacher, critic, and poet Thomas Fink takes us on an inspired tour of the reasoning behind theories of reading (and resistances to reading) which come up when we engage with poems in the classroom. This extremely useful handbook combines pragmatic examples of how to apply the theories with a refreshing candor about potential obstacles and aporias which we don't often get to hear about in pedagogical narratives. * Trace Peterson, Editor/Publisher, EOAGH, USA. *In this lucid, sharply focused, authoritative analysis of why so many college and university students come to poetry with 'poetry phobia,' Thomas Fink has created an indispensable guide to overcoming the barriers that stand between students’ understanding, appreciation, and—perhaps ultimately—love of the genre in all its clashing interpretations and various paradoxical and mutable forms. * Mary Mackey, Professor Emerita of English and Writer-in-Residence, California State University, USA and author of The Tigers That Prowl Our Dreams *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Barriers to Access and Engagement 2. Emotional Enticements and Aversions 3. Crossroads of Interpretation Conclusion Acknowledgments Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisGiven that the Surrealists were initially met with widespread incomprehension, mercilessly ridiculed, and treated as madmen, it is remarkable that more than one hundred years on we still feel the vitality and continued popularity of the movement today. As Willard Bohn demonstrates, Surrealism was not just a French phenomenon but one that eventually encompassed much of the world. Concentrating on the movement's theory and practice, this extraordinarily broad-ranging book documents the spread of Surrealism throughout the western hemisphere and examines keys texts, critical responses, and significant writers. The latter include three extraordinarily talented individuals who were eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (Andre Breton, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz). Like their Surrealist colleagues, they strove to free human beings from their unconscious chains so that they could realize their true potential. One Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry explores not only the birthTrade ReviewOne Hundred Years of Surrealist Poetry is at once an anthology and a beautifully accessible handbook, providing guidance, insights and information on essential aspects of surrealist theory and practise. From automatic writing and objective chance to mad love and black humour, the topics explored are exemplified by astonishing poems and oneiric prose from French, Hispanic and Portuguese writers, all translated by Willard Bohn with characteristic flair and empathy. * Peter Read, Professor Emeritus of Modern French Literature and Visual Arts, University of Kent, UK and author of Picasso and Apollinaire The Persistence of Memory (2008) *With his characteristic clarity, as well as formidable aesthetic and linguistic breadth, Bohn has produced a major work for serious students and scholars of Surrealism. Using important examples from many different cultural and theoretical sources, he offers new, wide-ranging perspectives on the origins and later history of the movement throughout the world. He also presents close readings of several key texts, many of which incorporate, and often surpass, analyses published by some of the most influential critics (Riffaterre, Bonnet, Balakian, Jenny, Caws, Murat ) who have worked on these often mysterious, enigmatic works. I highly recommend it, therefore, to anyone working in comparative literature, art history, even film studies, thanks to his explanations of surrealist images in a variety of art forms. * Stamos Metzidakis, Professor Emeritus of French and Comparative Literature, Washington University in Saint Louis, USA *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. André Breton and Automatic Writing 2. Revisiting the Surrealist Image 3. Paul Eluard and Surrealist Love 4. Surrealism and the Poetic Act 5. José María Hinojosa and Early Spanish Surrealism 6. Federico García Lorca 7. J. V. Foix and Catalan Surrealism 8. Portuguese Experiments with Surrealism 9. Octavio Paz 10. South American Surrealists Coda Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis‘Enchanting’ - Simon Russell Beale ‘Remarkable’ - James Shapiro‘Wonderful . . . compulsively readable’ - Nicholas HytnerWhy do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?When Robert McCrum began his recovery from a life-changing stroke, described in My Year Off, he discovered that the only words that made sense to him were snatches of Shakespeare. Unable to travel or move as he used to, McCrum found the First Folio became his ‘book of life’, an endless source of inspiration through which he could embark on ‘journeys of the mind’, and see a reflection of our own disrupted times.An acclaimed writer and journalist, McCrum has spent the last twenty-five years immersed in Shakespeare’s work, on stage and on the page. During this prolonged exploration, Shakespeare’s poetry and plays, so vivid and contemporary, have become his guide and consolation. In Shakespearean he asks: Why is it that we always return to Shakespeare, particularly in times of acute crisis and dislocation? What is the key to his hold on our imagination? And why do the collected works of an Elizabethan writer continue to speak to us as if they were written yesterday?Shakespearean is a rich, brilliant and superbly drawn portrait of an extraordinary artist, one of the greatest writers who ever lived. Through an enthralling narrative, ranging widely in time and space, McCrum seeks to understand Shakespeare within his historical context while also exploring the secrets of literary inspiration, and examining the nature of creativity itself. Witty and insightful, he makes a passionate and deeply personal case that Shakespeare’s words and ideas are not just enduring in their relevance – they are nothing less than the eternal key to our shared humanity.Trade ReviewShakespearean is a remarkable book, an illuminating and personal journey that takes us to the heart of Shakespeare’s art and influence. From his account of the plays’ quintessential Englishness to his exploration of what he shrewdly terms their 'negligent ambiguity,' McCrum’s insights are hard-earned and deeply rewarding -- James ShapiroI can’t think of anything better than listening to Robert McCrum talk about Shakespeare. And this enchanting book is the next best thing - like a gentle chat with a genuine expert. -- Sir Simon Russell BealeRobert McCrum beautifully connects Shakespeare to ourselves in a way I’ve not come across before. I love his curiosity. He seems to live each day as if he’s talked to Shakespeare on the phone that morning. So far, it's the best thing that has happened during lockdown.' -- Michael Grandage, Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse, 2002-2012Shakespearean is a brilliant, wise, elegant and profoundly moving book . . . Beautifully written, inspired and inspiring: a captivating portrait of Shakespeare and ourselves -- Joanna Kavenna, author of The Ice MuseumIf you ever had any doubts about the relevance of Shakespeare to the modern world, read this book! -- Henry Marsh, author of Do No HarmWonderful and inexhaustibly fascinating -- Richard EyreWonderful . . . a beautiful personal testament to why Shakespeare continues to matter so much. It is crammed with original insights, and springs equally from a deep knowledge of Shakespeare’s own world and a totally persuasive conviction that his plays speak to our own world, and our own selves, as cogently as they did to the Elizabethans. It is compulsively readable and I loved every page of it. -- Nicholas Hytner, theatre directorReading Shakespearean was a joy . . . by far the most accessible and erudite contemporary critique evoking with wit and profound insight that conscious (and subconscious) acknowledgement of the degrees to which Shakespeare‘s work continues to influence our cultural and political lives. It is also an essential entertaining book for anyone who like me shares a love of the great man’s plays and sonnets. -- Don Boyd, film directorMcCrum writes brilliantly about writing . . . there is much here to stir the blood * The Times *Engaging and animated . . . McCrum guides us rather like someone walking through a gallery . . . McCrum's Shakespeare for "times of disruption" is a welcome participant in the contemporary conversation -- Rowan Williams, New Statesman'Excellent . . . the winning combination of McCrum's own insights and sparkling language lifts Shakespearean to the must-read list . . . an ambitious and exhilarating ride * Daily Mail *A beguiling mix of memoir, literary criticism and biography * iNews *

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Book SynopsisScholars of the Gothic have long recognised Blake’s affinity with the genre. Yet, to date, no major scholarly study focused on Blake’s intersection with the Gothic exists. William Blake’s gothic imagination seeks to redress this disconnect. The papers here do not simply identify Blake’s Gothic conventions but, thanks to recent scholarship on affect, psychology, and embodiment in Gothic studies, reach deeper into the tissue of anxieties that take confused form through this notoriously nebulous historical, aesthetic, and narrative mode. The collection opens with papers touching on literary form, history, lineation, and narrative in Blake’s work, establishing contact with major topics in Gothic studies. Then refines its focus to Blake’s bloody, nervous bodies, through which he explores various kinds of Gothic horror related to reproduction, anatomy, sexuality, affect, and materiality. Rather than transcendent images, this collection attends to Blake’s ‘dark visions of torment’.Trade Review‘These essays investigate how Blake’s major texts—e.g., Jerusalem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The [First] Book of Urizen, and Visions of the Daughters of Albion—arose in conjunction with the Gothic novel in English literature. Addressing a little-recognized facet of Blake studies, the collection examines Blake’s works from aesthetic, architectural, and political Gothic perspectives. A lucid and accessible introduction precedes the essays, which will stretch nonspecialist readers. Several essays focus on Blake’s visual content: David Baulch’s entry reads Gothic iconography in the illustrations of Blake’s Jerusalem, and Jason Whittaker analyzes Blakean references in films by Ridley Scott, with an emphasis on Prometheus. Peter Otto finds the political and social upheavals of Gothic novels to be similarly contained in Blake’s monstrous present with horrified reactions to the alien bodies in The Book of Urizen. Other essays address philosophical readings of Blake’s Deleuzian multiplicity and his counter-Kantian sublime with sophisticated subtlety. This collection is not for the fainthearted, but neither is Blake. Psychological, mythological, and sociological, this collection will draw the reader into the many layers of Blake’s verbal and visual media.’C. L. Bandish, Bluffton University‘William Blake’s Gothic Imagination is more than it promises to be – a ‘major scholarly study focused on Blake’s intersections with the Gothic’ – it is a landmark in Blake scholarship. While many of us may be familiar with Blake’s popular reception, reading Blake’s art through the lens of the Gothic is a relatively new and rewarding critical undertaking.’ Sibylle Erle Bishop Grosseteste University, British Association of Romantic Studies‘An ambitious and expansive volume, Bundock and Effinger have opened a new field of enquiry relevant to Blake studies, gothic scholarship, and the broader field of aesthetic theory, particularly as it relates to political power and sexuality. It is to be hoped that their call for further scholarship into the intersection of Blakean verse and gothic horror will not go unanswered.’Eighteenth-Century Fiction'Such uncanny moments of uncomfortable intimacy occur throughout Bundock and Effinger’s collection and point to a fascinating, if sometimes unconscious, self-reflexivity that is not often found in many historicist analyses of Blake’s work.’European Romantic Review -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Chris Bundock and Elizabeth Effinger Part I: The bounding line of Blake’s Gothic: forms, genres, and contexts1. ‘Living Form’: William Blake’s Gothic relations – David Baulch2. The horror of Rahab: towards an aesthetic context for William Blake’s ‘Gothic’ form – Kiel Shaub3. The Gothic sublime – Claire ColebrookPart II: The misbegotten 4. Dark angels: Blake, Milton, and Lovecraft in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus – Jason Whittaker5. William Blake’s monstrous progeny: anatomy and the birth of horror in The [First] Book of Urizen – Lucy Cogan6. Blake’s Gothic humour: the spectacle of dissection – Stephanie CodsiPart III: Female space and the image7. The horrors of creation: globes, englobing powers, and Blake’s archaeologies of the present – Peter Otto8. Female spaces and the Gothic imagination in The Book of Thel and Visions of the Daughters of Albion – Ana Elena González-TreviñoPart IV: Sex, desire, perversion 9. The horrors of subjectivity/the jouissance of immanence – Mark Lussier10. ‘Terrible Thunders’ and ‘Enormous Joys’: potency and degeneracy in Blake's Visions and James Graham's celestial bed – Tristanne ConnollyBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisFeaturing essays from some of the most prominent voices in early medieval studies, Dating Beowulf playfully redeploys the word ‘dating’, which usually heralds some of the most divisive critical impasses in the field, to provocatively phrase a set of new relationships with an Old English poem. The volume argues for the relevance of the early Middle Ages to affect studies and vice-versa, offering a riposte to antifeminist discourse and opening avenues for future work by specialists in the history of emotions, literary theorists, students of Old English literature and medieval scholars alike. To this end, the essays embody a range of critical approaches from queer theory to animal studies and ecocriticism to actor-network theory.Trade Review'...the collection offers an opportunity to see the poem anew, from unexpected angles and in sometimes surprising contexts. At the same time, it models a kind of intellectual enterprise that welcomes new readers and encourages them to pay attention to where, how, and why they feel their own investments in the poem.'Modern Philology 'a delight to read. The quality of its fourteen essays is uniformly high, evidence of careful and thoughtful work on the part of both authors and editors.'Modern Philology 'One of the great delights of this book is how frequently contributors refer to other chapters and how many thematic clusters emerge. What really unites the collection is not a single definition of intimacy, but an attitude toward or orientation to the field of early medieval studies, one driven by a spirit of playfulness, openness, and accessibility. The fourteen essays sparkle with brilliant writing and a sense of shared joy in reading and writing about Beowulf.'Arthuriana -- .Table of Contents1 Getting intimate – Daniel C. Remein and Erica WeaverPart I: Beowulf in public2 Community, joy, and the intimacy of narrative in Beowulf – Benjamin A. Saltzman3 Beowulf and the intimacy of large parties – Roberta Frank4 Beowulf as Wayland’s work: thinking, feeling, making – James PazPart II: Beowulf at home5 Beowulf and babies – Donna Beth Ellard6 At home in the fens with the Grendelkin – Christopher AbramPart III: Beowulf outside7 Elemental intimacies: agency in the Finnsburg episode – Mary Kate Hurley8 What the raven told the eagle: animal language and the return of loss in Beowulf – Mo ParelesPart IV: Beowulf’s contact list 9 Men into monsters: troubling race, ethnicity, and masculinity in Beowulf – Catalin Taranu10 Sad men in Beowulf – Robin Norris11 Differing intimacies: Beowulf translations by Seamus Heaney and Thomas Meyer – David HadbawnikPart V: Beowulf in bed12 Beowulf and Andreas: intimate relations – Irina Dumitrescu13 Beowulf, Bryher, and the Blitz: a queer history – Peter Buchanan14 Dating Wiglaf: emotional connections to the young hero in Beowulf – Mary Dockray-MillerIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Narrative Grotesque examines late medieval narratology in two Older Scots poems: Gavin Douglas’s The Palyce of Honour (c.1501) and William Dunbar’s The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo (c.1507). The narrative grotesque is exemplified in these poems, which fracture narratological boundaries by fusing disparate poetic forms and creating hybrid subjectivities. Consequently, these poems interrogate conventional boundaries in poetic making. The narrative grotesque is applied as a framework to elucidate these chimeric texts and to understand newly late medieval engagement with poetics and narratology.Table of ContentsIntroduction: the narrative grotesque Part I: The Palyce of Honour, Gavin Douglas1 ‘Overset with fantasyis’: grotesquing the dream vision 2 Identity crisis: temporal dissonance and narrative voice 3 Heavenly harmonies: classical and Christian divinity in Palyce Part II: The Tretis of the Tua Mariit Wemen and the Wedo, William Dunbar4 Making demandes: frame, form, and narratorial persona5 Flyte of fancy: the first wife’s Response6 Lovesick or sick of love?: The second wife’s Response 7 Bad romance: the widow as venerean preacher ConclusionIndex

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Book SynopsisSpenser’s ethics offers a novel account of Edmund Spenser as a moral theorist, situating his ethics at the nexus of moral philosophy’s profound transformation in the early modern era, and the English colonisation of Ireland in the turbulent 1580’s and 90’s. It revises a scholarly narrative describing Spenser’s ethical thinking as derivative, nostalgic, or inconsistent with one that contends him to be one of early modern England’s most original and incisive moral theorists, placing The Faerie Queene at the centre of the contested discipline of moral philosophy as it engaged the social, political, and intellectual upheavals driving classical virtue ethics’ unravelling at the threshold of early modernity.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Emptying the virtuous middle in Elizabethan Ireland1. Milton’s Spenser: An alternative virtue for a fallen world2. Purposeful lives: Romance narrative and the generation of empires3. Magnificence: Fashioning the imperial commonwealth4. The metaphysics of moral being: Time, change, and flourishing in the Gardens of Adonis5. Civility and government: Virtuous discipline in the mutable world6. Immoderation and necessity: Spenser’s MachiavelliCodaReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisScholars of the Gothic have long recognised Blake’s affinity with the genre. Yet, to date, no major scholarly study focused on Blake’s intersection with the Gothic exists. William Blake’s gothic imagination seeks to redress this disconnect. The papers here do not simply identify Blake’s Gothic conventions but, thanks to recent scholarship on affect, psychology, and embodiment in Gothic studies, reach deeper into the tissue of anxieties that take confused form through this notoriously nebulous historical, aesthetic, and narrative mode. The collection opens with papers touching on literary form, history, lineation, and narrative in Blake’s work, establishing contact with major topics in Gothic studies. Then refines its focus to Blake’s bloody, nervous bodies, through which he explores various kinds of Gothic horror related to reproduction, anatomy, sexuality, affect, and materiality. Rather than transcendent images, this collection attends to Blake’s ‘dark visions of torment’.Trade Review‘These essays investigate how Blake’s major texts—e.g., Jerusalem, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, The [First] Book of Urizen, and Visions of the Daughters of Albion—arose in conjunction with the Gothic novel in English literature. Addressing a little-recognized facet of Blake studies, the collection examines Blake’s works from aesthetic, architectural, and political Gothic perspectives. A lucid and accessible introduction precedes the essays, which will stretch nonspecialist readers. Several essays focus on Blake’s visual content: David Baulch’s entry reads Gothic iconography in the illustrations of Blake’s Jerusalem, and Jason Whittaker analyzes Blakean references in films by Ridley Scott, with an emphasis on Prometheus. Peter Otto finds the political and social upheavals of Gothic novels to be similarly contained in Blake’s monstrous present with horrified reactions to the alien bodies in The Book of Urizen. Other essays address philosophical readings of Blake’s Deleuzian multiplicity and his counter-Kantian sublime with sophisticated subtlety. This collection is not for the fainthearted, but neither is Blake. Psychological, mythological, and sociological, this collection will draw the reader into the many layers of Blake’s verbal and visual media.’C. L. Bandish, Bluffton University‘William Blake’s Gothic Imagination is more than it promises to be – a ‘major scholarly study focused on Blake’s intersections with the Gothic’ – it is a landmark in Blake scholarship. While many of us may be familiar with Blake’s popular reception, reading Blake’s art through the lens of the Gothic is a relatively new and rewarding critical undertaking.’ Sibylle Erle Bishop Grosseteste University, British Association of Romantic Studies‘An ambitious and expansive volume, Bundock and Effinger have opened a new field of enquiry relevant to Blake studies, gothic scholarship, and the broader field of aesthetic theory, particularly as it relates to political power and sexuality. It is to be hoped that their call for further scholarship into the intersection of Blakean verse and gothic horror will not go unanswered.’Eighteenth-Century Fiction'Such uncanny moments of uncomfortable intimacy occur throughout Bundock and Effinger’s collection and point to a fascinating, if sometimes unconscious, self-reflexivity that is not often found in many historicist analyses of Blake’s work.’European Romantic Review -- .Table of ContentsIntroduction – Chris Bundock and Elizabeth Effinger Part I: The bounding line of Blake’s Gothic: forms, genres, and contexts1. ‘Living Form’: William Blake’s Gothic relations – David Baulch2. The horror of Rahab: towards an aesthetic context for William Blake’s ‘Gothic’ form – Kiel Shaub3. The Gothic sublime – Claire ColebrookPart II: The misbegotten 4. Dark angels: Blake, Milton, and Lovecraft in Ridley Scott’s Prometheus – Jason Whittaker5. William Blake’s monstrous progeny: anatomy and the birth of horror in The [First] Book of Urizen – Lucy Cogan6. Blake’s Gothic humour: the spectacle of dissection – Stephanie CodsiPart III: Female space and the image7. The horrors of creation: globes, englobing powers, and Blake’s archaeologies of the present – Peter Otto8. Female spaces and the Gothic imagination in The Book of Thel and Visions of the Daughters of Albion – Ana Elena González-TreviñoPart IV: Sex, desire, perversion 9. The horrors of subjectivity/the jouissance of immanence – Mark Lussier10. ‘Terrible Thunders’ and ‘Enormous Joys’: potency and degeneracy in Blake's Visions and James Graham's celestial bed – Tristanne ConnollyBibliography Index

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Book Synopsis'Making Darkness Light is an illumination' Adam Phillips'His sympathetic yet challenging account will undoubtedly win Milton new readers - and for that a chorus of Hallelujahs' SpectatorFor most of us John Milton has been consigned to the dusty pantheon of English literature, a grim puritan, sightlessly dictating his great work to an amanuensis, removed from the real world in his contemplation of higher things. But dig a little deeper and you find an extraordinary and complicated human being.Revolutionary and apologist for regicide, writer of propaganda for Cromwell's regime, defender of the English people and passionate European, scholar and lover of music and the arts - Milton was all of these things and more.Making Darkness Light shows how these complexities and contradictions played out in Milton's fascination with oppositions - Heaven and Hell, light and dark, self and other - most famously in his epic poem Paradise Lost. It explores the way such brutal contrasts define us and obscure who we really are, as the author grapples with his own sense of identity and complex relationship with Milton. Retracing Milton's footsteps through seventeenth century London, Tuscany and the Marches, he vividly brings Milton's world to life and takes a fresh look at his key works and ideas around the nature of creativity, time and freedom of expression. He also illustrates the profound influence of Milton's work on writers from William Blake to Virginia Woolf, James Joyce to Jorge Luis Borges.This is a book about Milton, that also speaks to why we read and what happens when we choose over time to let another's life and words enter our own. It will change the way you think about Milton forever.Trade ReviewMaking Darkness Light is elegant, nuanced, and comprehensive. Moshenska gives us a fresh and vivid account of Milton as an individual and a poet while pushing beyond the boundaries of conventional biography. Blending the personal with the historical and the literary, the results are compelling' -- Bart van Es, author of The Cut Out GirlJoe Moshenska's superb new biography of Milton is, like the poetry of his subject, a miracle of form, moving from moments of arresting detail to vast contemplations of time, history, and art, all set within an intimate narrative that is at once deeply embedded in its historical moment and aware of how that history connects through other moments to the present. The result is a stirring and compelling account of how great poetry gets written and gets read -- Edward Wilson-Lee, author of The Catalogue of Shipwrecked BooksMoshenska has written a new kind of literary biography. At once glancingly a memoir, a rivetingly informative biography, and a fascinating reading of Milton as poet, scholar and ordinary man in his everyday life, Making Darkness Light is an illumination. Milton and everything and everybody around him are seen in a quite different, intriguing light. -- Adam Phillips, author of On Kissing, Tickling and Being Bored and Becoming FreudJoe Moshenska is professionally committed to creating a readership for Milton among those for whom Genesis, Virgil, Homer and Tasso are closed books . . . A great imaginative exercise . . . His sympathetic yet challenging account will undoubtedly win Milton new readers - and for that a chorus of Hallelujahs -- A.N. Wilson, SpectatorStrikingly original . . . a poetic tour of 17th-century England . . . Literature lovers of all sorts will find something to savor here -- Publishers WeeklyOxford literature professor Moshenska takes a fresh perspective on John Milton (1608-1674), the art of biography, and the experience of reading . . . An inspired biographical and autobiographical journey -- KirkusMaking Darkness Light is unlike any book on Milton I have ever read. It is often densely erudite, but also richly inventive . . . [its] avoidance of easy certainties is typical of this subtle, challenging book -- John Carey, The Sunday TimesJoe Moshenska . . . is astute in placing music, especially rhythm (a word neither Milton nor Shakespeare used) and its visceral relationship to the body, at the root of this original, penetrating, cleverly constructed and occasionally frustrating biography -- Paul Lay, The TimesTantalisingly different and new...an extraordinary, seductive work of intellectual imagination -- Financial TimesMoshenska . . . brings his own experiences into this searching creative portrait of the visionary English poet. The book . . . comes alive in its alert close readings -- New York TimesMaking Darkness Light is not a conventional biography . . . despite the ambitious and demanding nature of his project, Moshenska writes with humility and agility -- Literary ReviewOf course, anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the facts of Milton's life and the context for his poetry will certainly find what they're looking for here. Making Darkness Light includes not only moments in Milton's life and the landscape of 17th century England as well as close readings of his work. But it's the exploration of what the author describes as one of Milton's deepest occupations, "the place of literature in a life," that sets the book apart. Moshenska has no aspirations to separate the biographer from the biography, and Making Darkness Light is richer for his presence throughout the book -- Jessie Gaynor, Lit Hub Senior EditorMoshenska knows his way around Milton's world... Making Darkness Light privileges us with a peek inside its author's mind in contemplation of such a life and makes a compelling case that it could be told in no other way -- Boston Globe

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Book Synopsis'Someone recently said to me, in reference to my poetry podcast, that you'd think poetry would be more popular than ever, in the twenty-first century, because people don't have a lot of time and 'novels are often quite big while poems are often quite small'. I referred them to Doctor Who's Tardis.'Frank Skinner wants you to read more poetry. Wait, wait - don't stop reading. Whether you're a frequent poetry reader or haven't read any since sixth form, Frank's infectious passion for language, rhythm and metre will win you over and provide you with the basic tools you need to tackle any poem.In this short, easy-to-digest and delightful book, Frank guides us through the twists and turns of 'Pad, pad' by Stevie Smith, a short, seemingly simple poem that contains multitudes of meaning and a deceptive depth of emotion. Revel in the mastery of Stevie Smith's choice of words, consider the eternal mystery of the speaker of the poem and be moved by rhyming couplets like you never have before.Give it a go. You never know, you might even enjoy it.

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Book SynopsisThis work-a parallel-text edition that contains all four versions of Piers Plowman-constitutes a major enterprise of textual scholarship and will provide for students of Langland a modern equivalent to Skeat's standard edition of 1886. This revised and corrected three-volume set is specifically designed to facilitate study of the parallel text (Volume 1) alongside both the textual notes (Volume 2, part 1) and the commentary/glossary (Volume 2, part 2), and is intended to make the entire edition available to as many students of Langland as possible.Table of ContentsVolume I. Text Second Edition Editorial Preface to the First Edition of Volume I Preface to Second Edition AcknowledgementsList of Manuscripts Symbols and Abbreviations used in the Apparatus Abbreviations Note on Text and Apparatus Text Appendix to the Text Appendices to Apparatus

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Book SynopsisJohn Gower's Confessio Amantis (The Lover's Confession) is one of the most important English works of the Fourteenth Century. Within its frame of the lovesick lover's confession are well over a hundred stories, mainly derived from classical mythology, the Bible, and history which exemplify the Middle Ages. Echoing the octosyllabic line of the original, this is the first translation of the entire (33,000-line) poem, including its Latin verses and glosses.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction The Lover's Confession Prologue Book 1: Pride Book 2: Envy Book 3: Wrath Book 4: Sloth Book 5: Avarice Book 6: Gluttony Book 7: Education of the King Book 8: Lechery Appendix A: Confessio Amantis Ricardian Recensions Appendix B: Confessio Amantis Name Glossary Appendix C: Sources and Analogs of Confessio Amantis Tales

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Book SynopsisRomano Guardini described Rainer Maria Rilke as the “poet who had things of such importance to say about the end of our own age [and] was also a prophet of things to come.” The complexity of Rilke is, then, “highly relevant to modern Man.” Decades after Guardini’s assessment, the reader who rediscovers Rilke will find a depth of mind and soul that display a profundity the post-modern reader only thinks he possesses. In an expanded collection of Rilke’s sonnets, Rick Anthony Furtak not only makes this lyrical masterpiece accessible to the English reader, but he proves himself a master of sorts as well. His introduction that elaborates on Rilke’s marriage of vision and voice, intention and enigma, haunted companionship and abandonment is a stand-alone marvel for the reader. Furtak’s praised translation of Sonnets to Orpheus (University of Chicago Press, 2008) is surpassed in this much broader collection of verse that also includes the original German text. It is Furtak’s great achievement that Rilke resonates with the contemporary reader, who uncertain and searching wants to believe that the vision of existence can mirror much more than his own consciousness. In his feat of rendering Rilke in English, contextualizing the philosophical meanings of verse, and presenting literary romanticism, Furtak provides a formidable contribution to the vindication of true poetic voice.

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Book SynopsisEnormous Smallness is a nonfiction picture book about the poet E.E. cummings. Here E.E.'s life is presented in a way that will make children curious about him and will lead them to play with words and ask plenty of questions as well. Lively and informative, the book also presents some of Cummings's most wonderful poems, integrating them seamlessly into the story to give the reader the music of his voice and a spirited, sensitive introduction to his poetry.In keeping with the epigraph of the book -- "It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are," Matthew Burgess's narrative emphasizes the bravery it takes to follow one's own vision and the encouragement E.E. received to do just that.Matthew Burgess teaches creative writing and composition at Brooklyn College. He is also a writer-in-residence with Teachers & Writers Collaborative, leading poetry workshops in early elementary classrooms since 2001. He was awarded a MacArthur Scholarship while working on his MFA, and he received a grant from The Fund for Poetry. Matthew's poems and essays have appeared in various journals, and his debut collection, Slippers for Elsewhere, was published by UpSet Press. His doctoral dissertation explores childhood spaces in twentieth century autobiography, and he completed his PhD at the CUNY Graduate Center in June 2014.Kris Di Giacomo is an American who has lived in France since childhood. She has illustrated over twenty-five books for French publishers, which have been translated into many languages. This is her sixth book to be published by Enchanted Lion Books. The others are My Dad Is Big And Strong, But . . . , Brief Thief, Me First!, The Day I Lost My Superpowers, andTrade ReviewA Boston Globe Best Book of 2015 A Huffington Post Best Picture Book in Biography for 2015 A 2016 Notable Children's Books in the English Language Arts Selected by the Great Lakes Great Books Award committee, a program of the Michigan Reading Association, for the 2016-2017 state-wide literature program "An eminently friendly introduction to both the poet and his spirit—deceptively simple, just like its subject." -- STARRED review, Kirkus Reviews “an uncommonly delightful picture-book celebration of Cummings’s life” -- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "An eminently friendly introduction to both the poet and his spirit—deceptively simple, just like its subject." -- STARRED review, Kirkus Reviews "The title of this book (Enormous Smallness) is perfect. Many of us think of poems as small things, but as much as anyone, E. E. Cummings showed us that even the smallest stanza could hold enormous meaning. Lovingly written (Burgess is himself a poet) and ingeniously illustrated, this book is a treasure for both fans of Cummings, as well as those discovering his poetry for the first time." -- The Huffington Post "Di Giacomo's capricious collages create a lively interplay between pictures and words, and visual motifs such as birds and elephants intermingle with samples of Cummings's work. Burgess delivers a thorough and lovingly crafted homage to a writer whose poems 'were alive with experimentation and surprise.'" -- Publishers Weekly "WOW. Dare I saw I was carried away by the awesomeness of enormous SMALLNESS? It has been a while since I have seen such a perfect pairing of story and art. It will give me great pleasure to put it into the hands of small (and tall) and introduce another generation to the genius of e. e. cummings." -- Mona, Jabberwocky Book Store, Fredericksburg, VA “It's important to get your kid to sleep, but a good bedtime reading does a lot more — it can inspire them in ways that will serve them well later on. That's the message of Enormous Smallness, a new picture book biography of the poet E.E. Cummings” -- Fatherly “A fabulous biographical picture book, this book is a great introduction to E.E. Cummings and his work.”-- Waking Brain Cells “The author includes major life events and poems, always circling back to a playfulness born in the poet's childhood and carried through his entire life, nurtured by parents and teachers. What makes this such a successful children's book is the author and artist's focus on Cummings's ability to channel and hold onto the inventiveness of childhood.” --Jennifer M. Brown, Children's Editor, Shelf Awareness "Plus it’s beautiful. Each page is a collage of words and visual elements that work in the manner of a Cummings poem. Letters fall from his mouth during graduation, and the more he writes, the more letters make up parts of the background colors of the pages."––Unshelved "My second graders, with no prompting, absolutely LOVED Enormous Smallness, a perfect picture book biography of the great e.e. cummings by Matthew Burgess. (Without invitation, they applauded!) They were silent and receptive the whole way through (that means they were with me. It was as though they realized they can be poets! At least that's what I hope.)"--Bri Johnson, New York City Librarian “It’s a book that will be hugely encouraging to young children who want to write, be poets, or just do things a little differently from the norm.” -- Whitney Morton Woodcock, Portland Book Review “an uncommonly delightful picture-book celebration of Cummings’s life” -- Maria Popova, Brain Pickings "This is a remarkable book that gives an example of one kid who did everything differently-- and came out OK. In fact, he became one of our greatest poets. The book is fun, informative, and It sends a valuable message with wit, creativity and beauty; it tells kids its OK to "color outside the lines" and to have an inner life not driven by others’ expectations." ––Enormous smallness: A Story of E.E. Cummings is a KBACH/Changing Hands Bookstore Book of the Month Pick “This is a book that will satisfy both the adults who read it to children, and the children who are lucky enough to hear it.” – The San Francisco Book Review “This is a lovely little poem of a book; appropriate enough, since it details the life and poetry of E.E. Cummings . . . a book that will be hugely encouraging to young children who want to write, be poets, or just do things a little differently from the norm.” – The Portland Book Review

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Book SynopsisJack Foley has been prominent in the San Francisco Bay Area poetry scene since the mid-1980s. The Light of Evening traces the arc of his life since his birth in New Jersey in 1940. Foley has spent his life in the pursuit of ways to continue writing poetry in a world in which the status of poetry has been seriously diminished. This candid autobiography offers a portrait of an artist who has continued to produce experimental as well as traditional work and who created theoretical underpinnings for that work. His exciting “choruses” – duets performed with his late wife Adelle – established him as a unique presenter of poetry in an area in which poets abound. Along with his creative work, Foley studied at Cornell with the brilliant and notorious deconstructionist critic Paul de Man. He lived through the 1960s in and around Berkeley, California, attending the university at the height of the Free Speech Movement. Following on the heels of Kenneth Rexroth, he has presented poetry on KPFA-FM, Berkeley’s radical radio station, for over thirty years. He produced a 1300-page history of Californian poetry from 1940 to 2005 that has been called “an oddball masterpiece ... the first adequate account of California's complex and contradictory literary life.” At eighty, Foley looks back at a life in which he managed to maintain himself as a contrarian poet who never resorted to the academy for sustenance and who never courted fame from the East Coast literary hegemony. The Light of Evening is the story of a complex, always-in-motion public intellectual for whom poetry was first, last, and always.

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Book SynopsisRimbaud was the original enfant terrible. A poetic genius, he destroyed all those who attempted to befriend him, most notoriously wrecking the marriage and sanity of the poet Verlaine. Having conquered the literary world of Paris, he abandoned France and in the dogdays of August 1880 he disembarked in Aden, on the coast of Yemen, a lean twenty-five-year-old Frenchman carrying only a brown suitcase fastened with four leather straps and a touch of fever. The subsequent period, the lost years , is the subject of this biographical quest.

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Book SynopsisWidely revered as the father of Western literature, Homer was the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the epic poems which immortalised such names as Achilles, Cyclops, Menelaus, and Helen of Troy. In this vivid introduction, Elton Barker and Joel Christensen celebrate the complexity, innovation, and sheer excitement of Homer’s two great works. Investigating the controversy surrounding the man behind the myths, they ask who Homer was and whether he even existed. Making parallels between Homeric hexameter and rap, and between his battle scenes and The Lord of the Rings, the authors highlight how his hugely influential epics deal with ageless questions that still confront us today. Perfect for new readers of the great poet and full of insights that will delight Homeric experts, this book will inspire you to discover – or rediscover – his masterpieces first-hand.Trade Review"A really good introduction to the Iliad and Odyssey, wearing its learning lightly and conveying a sense of both the delights and the profundity of the Homeric poems." Christopher Pelling, Regius Professor of Greek, University of Oxford, UK "Provides readers with exactly what they need to know in order to read the epics with the greatest comprehension and enjoyment." Erwin Cook, T. F. Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, Trinity University, USA "Interesting, thoughtful, and well written. The book covers an admirably wide range of issues with clarity and assurance." Barbara Graziosi, Professor of Classics, Durham University, UK "A smart book and a stylish piece of writing." Bruce Heiden, Professor of Classics, The Ohio State University, USA "Barker and Christensen have written the best introduction I know to the Homeric poems. They explain the main themes, scenes, and characters in clear, jargon-free language that is a pleasure to read, whether for those new to Homer or advanced students." Pura Nieto, Senior Lecturer in Classics, Brown University, USA "Barker and Christensen make fantastic guides to understanding the master of story telling - an enjoyable and compelling read that is sure to get people hooked on Homer." Assistant Professor of Classics, University of Warwick, UK'Lively and wide-ranging... pulls readers right into the vast impace of Homer on our own world. Anyone needing to justify the reading and study of Homer should read this.' * Classical Journal *

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Book SynopsisWhen Rilke died in 1926, his reputation as a great poet seemed secure. But as the tide of the critical avant-garde turned, he was increasingly dismissed as apolitical, too inward. In Rilke: The Last Inward Man, acclaimed critic Lesley Chamberlain uses this charge as the starting point from which to explore the expansiveness of the inner world Rilke created in his poetry. Weaving together searching insights on Rilke's life, work and reception, Chamberlain casts Rilke's inwardness as a profound response to a world that seemed ever more lacking in spirituality. In works of dazzling imagination and rich imagery, Rilke sought to restore spirit to Western materialism, encouraging not narrow introversion but a heightened awareness of how to live with the world as it is, of how to retain a sense of transcendence within a world of collapsed spiritual certainty.Trade Review“Deeply perceptive and passionately argued study of Rainer Maria Rilke... always illuminating.” --John Banville, The New York Review of Books

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Book SynopsisThis book delineates different manifestations of the vagabond spirit of poetry through the ages. In doing so, it makes claims for the efficacy of poetry in our industrialized world, where we are presented with environmental, political and economic challenges. The Vagabond Spirit of Poetry demonstrates that poems are vital now more than ever because they can transform our relations with each other and with the earth. It acknowledges the awesome power of poems by providing you with fresh ways to apprehend their profound spiritual insights. You will be surprised by how sharp your imagination becomes once you start following the paths opened by Edward Clarke's original readings. This region is full of unexpected turns and pleasant clearings. Beginning in the middle of things with Wordsworth, you will be taken on a journey from Shakespeare to Wallace Stevens. Significant older poets, including Homer, Virgil and Dante, will enliven conversations with the wisest British, Irish and American poets of the modern age. As you proceed, poetry will teach you how to put into practice its perennial wisdom.

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Book SynopsisIt is New Year at Camelot and a mysterious green knight appears at King Arthur’s court. Challenging the knights of the Round Table to a Christmas game, he offers his splendid axe as a prize to whoever is brave enough to behead him with just one strike. The condition is that his challenger must seek him out in a year and a day to have the deed returned. Sir Gawain accepts and decapitates the stranger, only to see him pick up his head, walk out of the hall and ride away on his horse. Now Gawain must complete his part of the bargain, search for his foe and confront what seems his doom… Michael Smith’s translation of this magnificent Arthurian romance draws on his intimate experience of the North West of England and his knowledge of mediaeval history, culture and architecture. He takes us back to the original poetic form of the manuscript and brings it alive for a modern audience, while revealing the poem’s historic and literary context.The book is beautifully illustrated throughout with detailed recreations of the illuminated lettering in the original manuscript and the author’s own linocut prints, each meticulously researched for contemporary accuracy. This is an exciting new edition that will appeal both to students of the Gawain-poet and the general reader alike.

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Book SynopsisShortlisted for the 2022 Plutarch Award A Washington Post 2021 Non-Fiction Book of the Year New York Times Review of Books Editors' Choice Non-Fiction Title Longlisted for the 2022 PEN / Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography A Sunday Times Best Paperback of 2022 'Brilliant, heart-stopping ... reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction all at the same time ... magical and compelling' Washington Post 'How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,' Elizabeth Barrett Browning famously wrote, shortly before defying her family by running away to Italy with Robert Browning. But behind the romance of her extraordinary life stands a thoroughly modern figure, who remains an electrifying study in self-invention. Elizabeth was born in 1806, a time when women could neither attend university nor vote, and yet she achieved lasting literary fame. She remains Britain's greatest woman poet, whose work has inspired writers from Emily Dickinson to George Eliot and Virginia Woolf. This vividly written biography, the first full study for over thirty years, incorporates recent archival discoveries to reveal the woman herself: a literary giant and a high-profile activist for the abolition of slavery who believed herself to be of mixed heritage; and a writer who defied chronic illness and long-term disability to change the course of cultural history. It holds up a mirror to the woman, her art - and the art of biography itself.Trade ReviewBeautifully told. It is high time Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Aurora Leigh were once again household names -- Frances Wilson * Mail on Sunday *Sampson explores Elizabeth's long illness ... with compassion and scepticism ... Sampson is an astute, thoughtful and wide-ranging guide * The Times *A fine contribution to a growing number of biographies that try to pick off the barnacles of rumour and legend that have attached themselves to the lives of writers, and instead reveal them as they really were. -- Robert Douglas Fairhurst * Spectator *This new biography [shows that she was ... determined, ambitious and engaged in the public debates of her day. It] restores her to her proper place as one of the leading voices of the Victorian era ... This book is an empathetic - and much-needed - reassessment which tells a fascinating story. The decision to use the present tense [may not be to every reader's taste, but it] underlines the sense that the biographer is bringing her subject back to life. Most importantly, Sampson makes one want to read Barrett Browning -- Lucasta Miller * Telegraph *The first biography of Barrett Browning in more than 30 years is a nuanced and insightful account, dismantling previous studies [that viewed the poet only in relation to her domineering father or husband]. Fiona Sampson, a poet herself as well as a biographer of Mary Shelley, argues that central to Barrett Browning's story is the construction of identity - both in her life and the myth-making that surrounds it. Such a construction is itself a two-way creation, argues Sampson. "That the life of the body both enables and limits the life of the mind is the paradox of the thinking self." * New Statesman *"[It is [the] publicly engaged Elizabeth that Fiona Sampson sets before us in] this fine biography, the first since Margaret Forster's more than 30 years ago. For her frame and point of reference Sampson uses Aurora Leigh... [which tells the story of a young female writer's early career, specifically an artist's development. At first glance this might seem to mark a retreat to the personal and the biographic, but] Sampson's point is that Aurora Leigh provides us with a model for understanding how Barrett Browning forged a new relationship between female subjectivity and public utterance. ... The content... is spot-on. Sampson is particularly interested in Barrett Browning's personal and political entanglement with empire and race. ... Sampson is not too fastidious to deprive herself - or us - of the schlockier pleasures of biographical speculation. ... Sampson is ... judicious... but she understands enough about the pleasures of transgression to leave ... possibility in play. -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *The award-winning poet Fiona Sampson ... in her intriguing biography of and meditation on EBB, making the convincing claim that she was the first female lyric poet ... Sampson's book is timely [in its examination of EBB's political awakening] ... as a poet she puts the work before the life, and that surely is the right way round. -- Daisy Goodwin * Sunday Times *Brilliant, heart-stopping ... reads like a thriller, a memoir and a provocative piece of literary fiction all at the same time ... magical and compelling -- Charlotte Gordon * Washington Post *Two-Way Mirror pushes back against the neglect, bordering on amnesia, that has descended on a poet once widely celebrated ... battling polite silence more than the mistakes or omissions of earlier critics and biographers, Sampson wants readers to see Barrett Browning afresh -- John Plotz * The New York Times *Sampson's central argument is that the real drama and interest of EBB's life are to be found in her work ... Sampson has written an often absorbing study of EBB's risk-taking and originality as a poet, covering ground missing from Margaret Forster's biography, published in 1988 -- Claudia Fitzherbert * Literary Review *Fiona Sampson [is] a sympathetic biographer -- Constance Craig Smith * Daily Mail *Fiona Sampson's passionate and exacting biography of Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a surprisingly compact volume, a bristling lyric sandwich of philosophy and action. It is also a page-turner. ... Sampson addresses her subject as "Elizabeth" rather than "Barrett Browning", rendering her intense sustained gaze extraordinarily intimate. Her deep sense of identification and unerring detail reels the reader in. ... Two-Way Mirror is a long overdue remaking of Barrett Browning's extraordinary appropriated life ... Each chapter is prefaced by a short philosophical lyrical essay or "frame", each a meditation on portraiture and reflection which doubles as an act of self-examination for Sampson ... It feels as if the stakes couldn't be higher for Sampson, and this gives an enormous charge to a vividly personal account... -- Martina Evans * Irish Times *Sampson treats the couple's marriage and elopement with tenderness and realism ... Sampson evokes a privileged world that occasionally smacks of Bridgerton ... yet which was starting to fulfil Blake's dark satanic vision ... and one of Sampson's key arguments is Elizabeth Barrett Browning's role in shaping and defining the poetic tastes of the time. ... Two-Way Mirror successfully sent me back to my selection of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems ... -- Harry Cochrane * Tablet *It takes a biographer of Fiona Sampson's lateral brilliance to re-argue EBB's importance [and to put her verse novel Aurora Leigh ... back where it belongs among the great works of the period]. She does by very carefully framing not just the life, which is far more vivid and complex than usually supposed. .. Sampson is superb on how much EBB's work is ... "written on the body". ... Armed with Sampson's complex portrait, with its multiple frames and mirror effects, it's possible ... to read Elizabeth Barrett Browning again ... She has come suddenly up to date -- Brian Morton * Herald *

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Book SynopsisThis is the first book to address William Wordsworth’s profound identification of the spirit of nature in trees. It looks at what trees meant to him, and how he represented them in his poetry and prose: the symbolic charm of blasted trees, a hawthorn at the heart of Irish folk belief, great oaks that embodied naval strength, yews that tell us about both longevity and the brevity of human life. Linking poetry and literary history with ecology, Versed in Living Nature explores intricate patterns of personal and local connections that enabled trees – as living things, cultural topics, horticultural objects and even commodities – to be imagined, theorized, discussed and exchanged. In this book, the literary past becomes the urgent present.Trade Review"This book makes a major contribution to our understandings of the social and cultural history of trees and their deep importance for Wordsworth."--Charles Watkins, professor of rural geography, University of Nottingham

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Book SynopsisH.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886–1961) was one of the first writers of free verse in English, best known for her sparse Imagist poems. For over forty years she wrote poetry that resurrected forgotten ancient goddesses, and autobiographical prose that explored her trauma, her desires, and the unique struggles of a twentieth-century woman writer. She was also a scholar of religion, mythology and history, a translator of ancient Greek, and worked in early avant-garde film. Dubbed the ‘perfect bi-’ by Sigmund Freud, she placed issues of sexuality and gender at the centre of her writings. This new biography explores the fascinating life and work of this important modernist figure, once written out of literary history but now receiving the attention she deserves.Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: ‘Inexorably entangled’, 1886–1911 Chapter 2: ‘My pencil run riot!’, 1911–14 Chapter 3: 'The black cloud fell’, 1914–18 Chapter 4: ‘To make a self’, 1919–26 Chapter 5: ‘The perfect bi-’, 1927–39 Chapter 6: ‘This is not writing . . . this is burning’, 1939–46 Chapter 7: ‘Content, besieged with memories, like low-swarming bees’, 1946–61 References Select Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements

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Book SynopsisThe book is a translation into English verse of the poems of the Latin writer Catullus (first century BCE). Catullus's poems vary from two-line epigrams to much longer pieces, and they range in subjects from declarations of love (and celebrations of sex), to moving personal poems and also scurrilous attacks on others, including Julius Caesar himself. Although Catullus has often been translated very freely, this collection tries to balance formal poetic style with the sometimes very direct and deliberately startling vocabulary. An introductory essay, which acknowledges how often these poems have been put into English, concentrates not on Catullus himself (about whose life we know very little for sure), but on the general and specific problems of translating his work into poetic English. It also gives background details for some of the longer mythological poems.

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Book SynopsisIn late December 1817, when attempting to name “what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature,” John Keats coined the term “negative capability,” which he glossed as “being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.” Since then negative capability has continued to shape assessments of and responses to Keats’s work, while also surfacing in other contexts ranging from contemporary poetry to punk rock. The essays collected in this volume, taken as a whole, account for some of the history of negative capability, and propose new models and directions for its future in scholarly and popular discourse. The book does not propose a particular understanding of negative capability from among the many options (radical empathy, annihilation of self, philosophical skepticism, celebration of ambiguity) as the final word on the topic; rather, the book accounts for the multidimensionality of negative capability. Essays treat negative capability’s relation to topics including the Christmas pantomime, psychoanalysis, Zen Buddhism, nineteenth-century medicine, and Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Describing the “poetical Character” Keats notes that “it enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated.” This book, too, revels in such multiplicity.Trade Review‘That this book ranges so richly, so variously, and so widely will be welcome to all readers, not least because it embodies the Shakespearean aspects of negative capability.’ Nicholas Roe, Wardlaw Professor of English Literature at the University of St Andrews‘Keats's Negative Capability will ... prompt [its readers] to think again and anew and unceasingly on what negative capability was, is, and can become.’ Jonathan Mulrooney, Associate Professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross‘[A] wonderfully diverse collection that equally tells the story of Keats while profitably poking and probing the discursive, diffusive, and cultural powers of the term [negative capability]… in the spirit of an intelligently designed Keatsian smorgasbord, the collection has something for everyone.’ G. Kim Blank, The Wordsworth Circle'This book significantly and provocatively reconfigures our understanding of Keats's poetry and letters, his authorial intentions, his aesthetic philosophy, and his global legacy.'Rebecca Nesvet, Review 19'[A] thought-provoking collection of commentary and innovative thinking... The work here will not provide statements of ‘fact and reason’, but instead will stimulate future scholarship on Keats and Romantic legacy for many years to come.'Anna Mercer, The Hazlitt Review'[The essays'] disagreements about what negative capability can and can’t mean give the volume a conversational dynamism; even their anxiety resembles the urgency of a spirited argument between friends... As Jonathan Mulrooney’s afterward notes, the collection’s dissonance is “its most Keatsian” feature.'Brittany Pladek, European Romantic Review'The collection will be essential to students and scholars of Keats as Rejack's analysis of John Jeffrey's role in transcribing 'Negative Capability' refreshes our understating of the concept. Contributors to this collection have risen to Rejack's editorial challenge and, produced prominent and diverse readings, which extend in variety across a range of critical approaches, including feminism, phenomenology, and psychoanalysis. Keats's 'Negative Capability' remains a vital concept, which continues to provoke readers and writers alike to reflect on its myriad values and virtues in the present and will continue to do so in the future.'Amina Brik, The BARS ReviewTable of ContentsPreface - Nicholas RoeIntroduction. Disquisitions: Reading Negative Capability, 1817–2017 - Brian Rejack and Michael TheunePart I. ‘swelling into reality’: New Contexts for Negative Capability Keats’s Negative Capability: On Pantomime and ‘Irritable Reaching’ - Brian Bates John Keats’s Jeffrey’s ‘Negative Capability’; or, Accidentally Undermining Keats - Brian Rejack Keats’s ‘Negative Capability’ and Hazlitt’s ‘Natural Capacity’ - Michael Theune ‘that strong excepted soul’: Nineteenth-Century Women Read Keats - Carmen Faye MathesPart II. ‘examplified throughout’: Forms of Negatively Capable Reading’ Negatively Capable Reading - Cassandra Falke Knowledge’s ‘gordian shape’: Keats and the Disciplines - Kurtis Hessel ‘Irritable Reaching’ and the Conditions of Romantic Mediation - Jeanne Britton ‘uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts’: Pluralities and the Historical Present in Keats and Hazlitt - Emily RohrbachPart III. ‘pursued through Volumes’, Volume I: Negative Capability in Twentieth- and Twenty-First-Century American Poetry Beyond the Great Divide: Negative Capability and Postwar American Poetics - Robert Archambeau Versions of Negative Capability in Modern American Poetry and Criticism - Eric Eisner ‘giddily off into the unknown’: Negative Capability and Naturalism in Elizabeth Bishop’s Poetics - Arsevi Seyran ‘Darkling I listen’: Jorie Graham and Negative Capability - Thomas GardnerPart IV. ‘pursued through Volumes’, Volume II: Adaptations, Appropriations, Mutations Negative Capability in the Twenty-First Century and Romantic Self Annihilation in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials - Suzanne L. Barnett Negative Capability in Psychoanalysis: Keats and Retroactive Judgment in Bion, Freud, Lacan, and Milner - David Sigler Zen and the Art of Negative Capability - Anne C. McCarthy Negative Capability in Dialogic Context - Walter L. ReedAfterword: Reading Keats’s Negative Capability - Jonathan MulrooneyIndex

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Book SynopsisFollowing the editors’ introduction to the collection, the essays in Scholarly Milton examine the nature of Milton’s own formidable scholarship and its implications for his prose and poetry–“scholarly Milton” the writer–as well as subsequent scholars’ historical and theoretical framing of Milton studies as an object of scholarly attention–“scholarly Milton” as at first an emergent and later an established academic discipline. The essays are particularly concerned with the topics of the ethical ends of learning, of Milton’s attention to the trivium within the Renaissance humanist educational system, and the development of scholarly commentary on Milton’s writings. Originally selected from the best essays presented at the 2015 Conference on John Milton in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the essays have been considerably revised and expanded for publication. Trade ReviewReviews'"Scholarly Milton" remains an ongoing, transformative, intellectual, and bookish industry, showcasing the expansiveness of his learning and that of Miltonists who reap and contribute to the pages and rewards thereof. And here, the exercise of converting presentations, specifically those delivered at the final Conference on John Milton at Murfreesboro, into fully developed essays has paid off substantially in the communal production of Scholarly Milton.'Elizabeth Sauer, Modern Philology'In the impressive lead essay, Achinstein asserts that in the tracts, Milton’s practice of the Erasmian humanist philosophical tradition mitigates the limitations imposed ‘by the hermeneutic principles of biblical interpretation as sola scriptura’. These essays are of consistent high quality, and I cheerfully recommend the volume overall.' David V. Urban, The Year's Work in English Studies"This collection has the potential to be a repository of and catalyst for continued reflection on the importance of scholarship and will certainly generate new scholarly work on Milton and beyond."David A. Harper, Milton Quarterly (55.3-4)Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction: Scholarly Milton Part 1: MILTON AND THE ETHICAL ENDS OF LEARNING 1. Sharon Achinstein High Enterprise: Milton and the Genres of Scholarship in the Divorce Tracts 2. Sam Hushagen, Typology and Milton’s Masterplot 3. James Ross Macdonald The Devil as Teacher in Paradise Lost 4. J. Antonio Templanza “The First and Wisest of Them All”: Paradise Regained and the Beginning of Thinking 5. Gardner Campbell Learning, Love, and the Freedom of the Double Bind Part 2: MILTON AND THE TRIVIUM 1. Emma Annette Wilson Re-Visiting Milton’s (Logical) God: Empson 2015 2. Russell Hugh McConnell God’s Grammar: Milton’s Parsing of the Divine 3. Joshua R. Held Raphael’s Peroratorio in Paradise Lost: Balancing Rhetorical Passion in Virgil and Paul Part 3: MILTON AND SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY 1. Emily E. Stelzer Euphrasy, Rue, Polysemy, and Repairing the Ruins 2. Nicholas Allred Paradise Finding Aids 3. Edward Jones Political Diplomacy, Personal Conviction, and the Fraught Nature of Milton’s Letters of State

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Book SynopsisA critical intervention on the relationship between language and matter. If the twentieth century was the century in which language was at the center of thought, the twenty-first century has, so far, been the century of matter. The Matter of Language is a critical intervention that aims to return to the relationship between language and matter to think of our present moment as one dominated by abstractions that rule our lives. In a series of dated chapters, that form punctual moments of intervention, this book both rehabilitates key thinkers, like Marx, Freud, and Saussure, and engages with poetic thinking on matter in David Jones, Diane di Prima, William Blake, Leslie Kaplan, and others. It is a matter of understanding language as a site of struggle, which is intimately bound to the material but also crucial in formulating and expressing the material and the abstractions that shape language and matter. Working between theory and poetry, The Matter of Language reconceives notions of alienation and class struggle as essential modes of reading and analysis for our fractured present.Table of ContentsIntroduction: The War of Language1.1844: Direct Language2.1901: Freudful Mistakes3.1916: Pure Values4.1937: Corporeal Joins5.1968: Cosmogony of Revolution6.1794 / 1982: British Sounds7.1985: Spliced Substantives8.2008–16: Hex Position

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Book Synopsis"When I say this book is a love story, I mean it is about things that cannot be gotten over-like this world, and some of the people in it."In 1819, the poet John Keats wrote six poems that would become known as the Great Odes. Some of them-"Ode to a Nightingale," "To Autumn"-are among the most celebrated poems in the English language. Anahid Nersessian here collects and elucidates each of the odes and offers a meditative, personal essay in response to each, revealing why these poems still have so much to say to us, especially in a time of ongoing political crisis. Her Keats is an unflinching antagonist of modern life-of capitalism, of the British Empire, of the destruction of the planet-as well as a passionate idealist for whom every poem is a love poem.The book emerges from Nersessian's lifelong attachment to Keats's poetry; but more, it "is a love story: between me and Keats, and not just Keats." Drawing on experiences from her own life, Nersessian celebrates Keats even as she grieves him and counts her own losses-and Nersessian, like Keats, has a passionate awareness of the reality of human suffering, but also a willingness to explore the possibility that the world, at least, could still be saved. Intimate and speculative, this brilliant mix of the poetic and the personal will find its home among the numerous fans of Keats's enduring work.Trade ReviewIn Anahid Nersessian's Keats's Odes: A Lover's Discourse, red life streams again through Keats's poems. It is a risky, passionate criticism that - in addition to yielding all sorts of insights into the man and his writing - tests what of her own life the poems might hold (and quicken). This is living in and through and with and against poetry. A brilliant and refreshingly unprofessional book -- Ben Lerner * Paris Review *Keats's Odes is brash, skeptical, and tender by turns, offering a fluctuating re-visioning of Keats which is firm in its convictions...Nersessian's prose is bold, irreverent, declarative, and feral. Hyperbole and slackness are deceptive: every phrase feels carefully pitched. * Times Literary Supplement *The book's intimacy, vulnerability and determination to provoke is true to Keats, and Nersessian's genuine feeling for his work is never in doubt. One can't help but be pleased that two centuries on, Keats's odes still inspire engagement and love. * Washington Post *This book claims to be 'about' Keats's odes. And it is. But it is also about beauty and sadness and love and revolution and how the odes can help us to better understand these things. It is nothing short of a perfect book, one that understands how poetry can transform one's life. Nersessian is on track to be the Harold Bloom of her generation, but a Bloom with politics. -- Juliana SpahrThis is an intense, often dazzling, original, illuminating, idiosyncratic, but also welcoming and welcome book. Offering trenchant, astute, often polemical and sometimes breathtaking readings of Keats's Odes - and simultaneously of love, politics, worldmaking, and self - Nersessian has written a propelled, impelled, impassioned work, truly in Keats's spirit. -- Maureen N. McLaneThe best book about John Keats published at the poet's bicentenary. * Jacobin *I've read Anahid Nersessian's KEATS ODES: A LOVER'S DISCOURSE a half dozen times now, and it just keeps getting better. Nobody's smarter than Nersessian, nobody's more humane, nobody's more searching, fearless, nobody's more provocative, nobody challenges and cherishes their subject this way. It is that thrilling sensation of meeting a new voice on the page you know you'll spend your entire life following. -- Kaveh AkbarAnahid Nersessian offers a radical and unforgettable reading of the British writer's odes-one that upends our sense of his poetic project. * The Nation *Intense emotion abounds in this literary blend of analysis and autobiography. . . . In six essays that examine each of Keats's Great Odes, Nersessian tells a 'kind of love story' between herself and the poems. * Publishers Weekly *Thinking through John Keats's six "Great Odes," Nersessian offers up six critical and autobiographical essays that work, in their own right, like odes. Keats's Odes is also a terse, stunning pastiche of Roland Barthes's "A Lover's Discourse". In imaginative, lucid prose, Nersessian proves that criticism can be loving, literary art. * Boston Globe, Best Books of 2021 *Keats's Odes is a discourse on love as interpretive practice. Demanding, generous, precise, utopian, and unfailingly brilliant, Nersessian reinvents reading itself as a form of critical intimacy for our broken times -- Srikanth ReddyThis book is a classic of a new genre, a love letter of literary theory, giving a desired political language to the left's long-quivering heart for the lyric and sensuous knowledge of Keats. We always knew he was the activist's Romantic, and now in articulate and radical analysis, we have an understanding of his poetic form that illuminates our unwavering passion for his Odes. -- Holly Pester

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Book SynopsisDyma gyfrol gyfoethog o ysgrifau'n ymwneud ag amrywiol agweddau ar lenyddiaeth Gymraeg a Cheltaidd, ac sy'n talu teyrnged i gyfraniad arbennig yr Athro Marged Haycock i'r ddisgyblaeth. Cesglir ynghyd waith ysgolheigion blaenllaw ar bynciau'n ymestyn o'r cerddi Cymraeg cynharaf i lên gwerin a chof bro. Gyda'i gilydd, ffurfia'r penodau lyfr tra sylweddol a phwysig ar lenyddiaeth Gymraeg a Cheltaidd.This rich volume of essays engages with varied aspects of Welsh and Celtic literature as a tribute to the enormous contribution made to the discipline by Professor Marged Haycock. Work by leading scholars is gathered together on subjects ranging from the earliest Welsh poems to folklore and regional memory. The volume forms a substantial and important contribution to the study of Welsh and Celtic literature.

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Book SynopsisRailway Rhymes is probably the first time that the poetry of railways has been brought together into one dedicated volume. Here will certainly be found the old favourites - Philip Larkin's 'Whitsun Weddings', W.H. Auden's 'Night Mail', John Betjeman's 'Distant View of a Provincial Town', - but equally this little book is stuffed with forgotten gems like Edmund Blunden's 'Two Wars' and Patricia Beer's 'The Branch Line'. Divided up into chapters entitled Navigation, Engineering, Waiting, Travellingand Musing, Railway Rhymes is the perfect pocket companion for waiting room and train compartment alike

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Book SynopsisMusic may be the universal language that needs no words-the "language where all language ends," as Rilke put it-but that has not stopped poets from ancient times to the present from trying to represent it in verse.Here are Rumi and Shakespeare, Elizabeth Bishop and Billy Collins; the wild pipes of William Blake, the weeping guitars of Federico García Lorca, and the jazz rhythms of Langston Hughes; Wallace Stevens on Mozart and Thom Gunn on Elvis-the range of poets and of their approaches to the subject is as wide and varied as music itself.The poems are divided into sections on pop and rock, jazz and blues, specific composers and works, various musical instruments, the human voice, the connection between music and love, and music at the close of life. The result is a symphony of poetic voices of all tenors and tones, the perfect gift for all musicians and music lovers.

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Book SynopsisPlace of refuge, place where we can be ourselves; place we long to escape from, place where we are confronted by absence and loneliness; shabby downtown apartment or idyllic country cottage. Like it or loathe it, home is where we do most of our living. Home is, of course, many things to many poets. It is Billy Collins's favourite armchair and Imtiaz Dharker's 'Living Space' in the slums of Mumbai. It is Wordsworth's 'dear Valley' of Grasmere, and Philip Larkin's Coventry, that place where nothing so famously happens. It may be somewhere we long for, perhaps unattainably: Ovid and Mahmoud Darwish lament their home countries, Kapka Kassabova seeks 'a house we can never find', while Jules Supervielle is 'Homesick for the Earth'.There is an abundance of domestic life. Attend a miserable breakfast chez Jacques Prévert; observe Wendy Cope and partner happily 'Being Boring'. Cut to Anna Barbauld's washing-day, Marilyn Nelson dusting, Buson mending his clothes and Fiona Wright contending with a Tupperware party. Peep in on Amy Lowell in the bath and John Donne in bed, Auden in the privy and Joy Harjo at the kitchen table. Here are removals and homecomings, neighbours good and bad. Inevitably, after a year of enforced domesticity, some lockdown thoughts (Anna McDonald, Pauline Prior-Pitt); Mary Oliver's dream house, Naomi Shihab Nye's homes where children live, the far-from-safe houses of U. A. Fanthorpe, and some final reflections on the idea of a dwelling place from Rumi, Emily Dickinson, John Burnside, Vinita Agrawal, Derek Walcott, Les Murray and Iman Mersal. It may not always be sweet, but there is certainly No Place Like Home.

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Book SynopsisA collection of poetry witnessing celebrations both private and public, from the author of I KNOW WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS.'A brilliant writer, a fierce friend and a truly phenomenal woman' BARACK OBAMAMaya Angelou's poetry has stirred our souls, energized our minds and healed our hearts. Celebrations is a collection of timely and timeless poems: the inspiring 'On the Pulse of Morning', read at President William Jefferson Clinton's 1993 inauguration; the heartening 'Amazing Peace'; 'A Brave and Startling Truth', which marked the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations; and 'Mother', which beautifully honours the first woman in our lives. 'She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace . . . She will always be the rainbow in my clouds' OPRAH WINFREY'She was important in so many ways. She launched African American women writing in the United States. She was generous to a fault. She had nineteen talents - used ten. And was a real original. There is no duplicate' TONI MORRISON

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Book SynopsisT. S. Eliot once spoke of a lifetime burning in every moment. He had the mind to conceive a perfect life, and he also had the honesty to admit he could not meet it.'He was a man of extremes whose deep flaws and high virtues were interfused,' writes Lyndall Gordon in this perceptive and innovative biography of the great poet. She brilliantly explores his poetry, drama and essays in relationship to the four quite different women in his life and to his time in America and England. The Imperfect Life of T.S. Eliot follows the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect.Trade ReviewThe most valuable single book yet published about Eliot -- Jonathan Raban * Sunday Times *A nuanced, discerning account of a life famously flawed in its search for perfection * New Yorker *An intellectually demanding, sophisticated and distinguished book . . . Probing and extremely thoughtful -- Richard Bernstein * New York Times *

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Book SynopsisSeni Seneviratne's debut collection offers a poetic landscape that echoes themes of migration, family, love and loss and reflects her personal journey as a woman of Sri Lankan and English heritage.The poems cross oceans and centuries. In 'Cinnamon Roots' Seni Seneviratne travels from colonial Britain to Ceylon in the 15th century and back to Yorkshire in the 20th Century; in 'A Wider View' time collapses and carries her from a 21st century Leeds back to the flax mills of the 19th century; poems like 'Grandad's Insulin', based on childhood memories, place her in 1950's Yorkshire but echo links with her Sri Lankan heritage."Loss, love, memory, from Yorkshire to Sri Lanka and back, Seni Seneviratne's poems delve in and out of a complex history. These tender, moving poems weave a delicate web." Jackie KaySeni Seneviratne is a writer, singer, photographer and performer. She was born in Leeds, Yorkshire in 1951 to an English mother and Sri Lankan father. She has been writing poetry since her early teens and was first published in 1989.Trade Review"Loss, love, memory, from Yorkshire to Sri Lanka and back, Seni Seneviratne's poems delve in and out of a complex history. These tender, moving poems weave a delicate web." -- Jackie Kay "There's something about us. There are historians that may record our experiences. And these experiences may be found in the galleries of the future. Preserved. But it's in the poetry where the exhibits actually live. And it's here. Let Seni walk you through the labarynthine gallery of Wild cinnamon and winter skin." -- Lemn Sissay "Seni Seneviratne's poetry straddles continents and centuries - and does so with an easy fluency. The reader is drawn into her journey of discovery for her 'cinnamon roots' and her exploration of issues of identity and relationships. Personal and universal histories interweave in these poems." -- Debjani Chatterjee"

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Book Synopsis**WINNER of the 2019 PEN Ackerley Prize**'A major literary talent . . . speaks about the power and powerlessness that young women are subject to in a wholly fresh, clear-eyed way . . . you'll find it hard to come away from The Terrible without a stab of recognition in your chest' Stylist 'You may not run away from the thing that you arebecause it comes and comes and comes as sure as you breathe.'This is the story of Yrsa Daley-Ward, and all the things that happened - 'even the Terrible Things (and God, there were Terrible Things)'. It's about her childhood in the north-west of England with her beautiful, careworn mother and her little brother who sees things written in the stars. It's also about growing up and discovering the power and fear of sexuality, about pitch grey days of pills and powder: going under, losing yourself, and finding your voice. 'Yrsa's work is like holding the truth in your hands' Florence WelchTrade ReviewElegant, daring, profound - confirms her abundant talent as a writer -- Arifa Akbar * Observer *Beautiful and harrowing . . . Daley-Ward writes with disarming honesty * Vogue *A major literary talent . . . speaks about the power and powerlessness that young women are subject to in a wholly fresh, clear-eyed way . . . you'll find it hard to come away from The Terrible without a stab of recognition in your chest * Stylist *Daley-Ward explores the connection between raw emotion and the mechanics of language with more wildness and tenacity than ever * Dazed *A rare combination of literary brilliance, originality of voice and a narrative that commands you to keep going until you've reached the last page . . . her prose is invigorating, razor-sharp and moves at the speed of light . . . Yrsa Daley-Ward is an explosive new talent and this book should not be missed -- Anna van Praagh * Evening Standard *The Terrible's raw yet lilting prose draws the reader in at once. Unpredictable shifts in form and structure - from prose to poetry and script - are refreshingly disorientating. This is both a defiant book and a defiantly inventive one. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement *Daley-Ward is a stylish writer, as well as an unusual voice . . . she has a knack for distilling wild emotions into precise imagery, for selecting insightful impressions. -- Francesca Angelini * Sunday Times *Daley-Ward's beautiful prose wrapped its hands around my neck - I found myself doing stupid things like walking through New York at rush hour with my nose buried in her book. -- Jamal Jordan * The New York Times *The Terrible is a lyrical piece of writing that oscillates between prose and poetry . . . Daley-Ward's lines land like dandelion spores, these weightless things that are somehow simultaneously profound -- Una Mullally * Irish Times Magazine *Daley-Ward has cooked a broth of dizzying emotions and touching moments down to a nuanced and taut account . . . there are so many flourishes of imagination and pathos here, that it's impossible not to get caught up in the torrential pace of the narrative . . .the result is one of the year's genuine must reads * Irish Independent *Daley-Ward combines beautifully crafted and deeply personal verse with impressive prose, bending the form of the memoir into her own genre -- Alexander Holmes * Metro *Daley-Ward is twenty-nine years old, but the events of her life more than justify the publication of this unflinching chronicle. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement *Daley-Ward is twenty-nine years old, but the events of her life more than justify the publication of this unflinching chronicle. -- Patricia Yaker Ekall * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThis collected editon of Sorley MacLean brings together published poetry from MacLean's own edited volumes of poetry, poetry previously published in various magazines, literary journals and anthologies, and poetry which has never been published before. The poems are given in their original Gaelic with English translations. The volume opens with a biographical summary of Maclean's childhood on Raasay, his life at university and war experiences, and examines MacLean's effect on Gaelic and Scottish literature, and his literary, political and philosophical influences, which included Gaelic traditional song, Romanticism and Modernism, as well as Communism and Fascism.

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Book Synopsis‘The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day …’ Thomas Gray’s 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' has been loved and admired throughout the centuries. First circulated to a select group of friends, it was rushed to official publication in 1751 in order to avoid pirated copies being sold without the young poet’s permission. Praised by Samuel Johnson, reprinted over and over again in Gray’s lifetime and recited by generations of school children, it is one of the most famous poems in the English language. This edition reproduces the exquisite wood engravings made by Agnes Miller Parker in 1938. Parker visited the churchyard at St Giles, Stoke Poges, where the poem is set, in order to make her sketches, and all thirty-two stanzas of the poem are accompanied by detailed full-page illustrations. Commemorating the 250th anniversary of the poet’s death, this edition will not only bring new readers to the 'Elegy' but will also appeal to those already familiar with its riches.Table of ContentsContents Loss Transformed - Carol Rumens Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard

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Book SynopsisPoetry has never been so rigorous and diverse, nor has its audience been so numerous and engaged. Strong words? Not if the poets are right. As Ezra Pound wrote: 'You would think anyone wanting to know about poetry would go to someone who knew something about it.' That's exactly what Bloodaxe has done with this judicious and comprehensive selection of British, Irish and American manifestos by some of modern poetry's finest practitioners. Opening the 20th century account with Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats and T.S. Eliot, the book moves through key later figures including W.H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Stevie Smith and Dylan Thomas. America is richly represented too, from Robert Frost and William Carlos Williams to the influential New England poets Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath. Strong Words then brings the issues fully up to date with over 30 specially commissioned statements from contemporary writers including Seamus Heaney, Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Selima Hill, Paul Muldoon and Douglas Dunn, amounting to a new overview of the poetry being written at the start of the 21st century. For poets and readers, for critics, teachers and students of creative writing and contemporary poetry, this is essential reading. As well as representing many of the most important poets of the last hundred years, Strong Words also charts many different stances and movements, from Modernism to Postmodernism, from Futurism to the future theories of poetry. This landmark book champions the continuing dialogue of these voices, past and present, exploring the strongest form that words can take: the poem.Trade ReviewUtterly compelling… Strong Words brings together a diverse collection of essential commentaries in a single volume. -- Duncan Wu * BBC Radio 3 Book of the Month *

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Book SynopsisIn this innovative series of public lectures at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by "Bloodaxe", giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject. Jane Hirshfield examines the roles of hiddenness, uncertainty and surprise as they appear in poetry and other works of literature, in the life and psyche of the writer, and in the broader life of the culture as a whole. "Poetry and Hiddenness: Thoreau's Hound Explorations of Hiddenness" go back to the beginning of literature. There is no paradise, no place of true completion, that does not include within its walls the unknown. In this lecture, Hirshfield explores the centrality and necessity of hiddenness in our lives, and elucidates both the uses of hiddenness and hidden meanings in the work of writers ranging from Homer to Cavafy, from Auden to Jack Gilbert.Poetry and Uncertainty - To be human is to be unsure, and if the purpose of poetry is to deepen the humanness in us, poetry will be unsure as well. This lecture illuminates the ways uncertainty - in poems, and in life - allows both broadened feeling and enlarged knowledge. Translations are central to this talk, which includes poems by Izumi Shikibu, Anna Swir, Fernando Pessoa and Paul Celan. "Poetry and the Constellation of Surprise Poems" preserve their inaugural newness in part because they are like the emotions - not object, but experience, event. Poems that last are those that do not lose the power to astonish. This lecture examines surprise as a central, unrecognised fulcrum of great poems. Three poems are then looked at in detail by Hirshfield as test-cases: "Ithaka" by C.P. Cavafy, "Oysters" by Seamus Heaney and "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost.

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Book SynopsisIn this innovative series of public lectures at Newcastle University, leading contemporary poets speak about the craft and practice of poetry to audiences drawn from both the city and the university. The lectures are then published in book form by Bloodaxe, giving readers everywhere the opportunity to learn what the poets themselves think about their own subject. It's almost a cliche that music and poetry are cousins, and that the term lyric names this cousinship. Yet the actual forms music takes within poetry are unclear, even contested. At the same time, our assumptions about these forms condition the ways we hear poetry. So it's useful to us as both readers and writers to discover where the analogies between music and poetry are. Fiona Sampson's Music Lessons outlines some of these, using ideas and examples from Martin Heidegger to J.S. Bach, Emily Dickinson to Leonard Cohen, and George Herbert to Julia Kristeva. Her first lecture, Point Counter-point, uses melody to suggest a link between poetic line, phrase and breath. Here is my space explores how pureA", abstract forms can be created in time in the same way that they are created in space. Finally, How strange the change looks at sensuous apprehension and the pleasure principle.

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Book SynopsisOne day in spring 1964, the young American poet Robert Bly left his rural farmhouse and drove 150 miles to the University of Minnesota library in Minneapolis to obtain the latest book by the young Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer. When Bly returned home that evening with a copy of Transtromer's The Half-Finished Heaven, he found a letter waiting for him from its author. With this remarkable coincidence as its beginning, what followed was a vibrant correspondence between two poets who would become essential contributors to global literature. Airmail collects more than 290 letters, written from 1964 until 1990, when Transtromer suffered a stroke that has left him partially paralysed and diminished his capacity to write. Across their correspondence, the two poets are profoundly engaged with each other and with the larger world: the Vietnam War, European and American elections, and the struggles of affording a life as a writer. Airmail also offers remarkable insights into the processes of translating literature from one language into another. As Bly began to render Transtromer's poetry into English and Transtromer began to translate Bly's poetry into Swedish, their collaboration soon turned into a friendship that has lasted fifty years. Insightful, brilliant, and often funny, Airmail provides a rare portrait of two artists who have become integral to each other's particular genius. Based on the original Swedish edition published in 2001, this publication marks the first time letters by Transtromer and Bly have been made available in Britain. Robert Bly's translations of Tomas Transtromer appear in The Half-Finished Heaven: The Best Poems of Tomas Transtromer, published by Graywolf Press. Transtromer's complete poetry is available in English in Robin Fulton's translation, New Collected Poems, published by Bloodaxe Books (and by New Directions in the US under the title The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems).Trade Review..a book of real importance...this is a generous, intimate book. It should be required reading for everyone interested in poems and the making of poetry. -- Fiona Sampson * Guardian *I spent early summer days with Airmail: The Letters of Tomas Tranströmer and Robert Bly. In March 1964 Bly drove across Minnesota to borrow Tranströmer’s latest collection from a library. On his return he found a letter from the Swedish poet. With this coincidence began 26 years of letters. It’s an elegant, humorous and illuminating collection. -- Mary O'Donoghue * Irish Times, Books of the Year 2013 *

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Book SynopsisThe major seventeenth-century English poet between Shakespeare and Milton, Donne is chiefly celebrated as a love poet. But he was also the author of magnificent satires and epistles, and a series of religious poems including the Holy Sonnets. All these genres are represented in this volume, together with a selection from his prayers, letters and sermons, presenting a complete portrait of a great poet an an extraordinary man.

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