Description
Book SynopsisDrawn from more than twenty years of literary criticism, this collection of Jay Rogoff’s essays explore how the staying power of a poet’s work and the likelihood of it enjoying a lasting identification with its creator depend on the skilled manipulation of poetic technique.
Trade ReviewJay Rogoff, one of our most consistently interesting poets, shows he is also one of our best critics of poetry.
Becoming Poetry features brilliant essays on the differences between poetry and song, Shakespeare's sonnets, and Williams's struggle with Pound in
Paterson, and a deft survey of contemporary poets. On poetic accent and metrical form, he is profoundly instructive. Every lover of poetry will want this book." - David Mikics, author of
Slow Reading in a Hurried Age"
Becoming Poetry earns its title, marking the reciprocities between the poem and the means involved in writing it. Rogoff, a poet, brings a watchmaker's attention to poems' workings in arresting, precisely considered prose. The immersive process of becoming poetry, which Rogoff makes legible, discloses the most enduring symbiosis between language and being." - JoEllen Kwiatek, author of
Study for Necessity"Rogoff earns a proud place in the grand tradition of the poet-critic. His experience with poetic craft yields insight, sympathy, and candor in discussing his fellow practitioners." - Terence Diggory, author of
William Carlos Williams and the Ethics of Painting
