Description
Book SynopsisScience has transformed understandings of the mind, supplying physiological explanations for what once seemed transcendental. Nikki Skillman shows how lyric poets—caught between a reductive scientific view and naïve literary metaphors—struggled to articulate a vision of consciousness that was both scientifically informed and poetically truthful.
Trade ReviewNikki Skillman’s clear and eloquent book reshapes the landscape of modern American poetry. It explores the distinctiveness of poets’ engagement with the experience of mind, whether as embattled defenders of human mystery or shrewd explorers of synapses. -- Jonathan Culler, Cornell University
This important book argues that advances in brain science have made for significant changes in American poetry since the 1960s. Skillman’s writing is eloquent, often beautiful, meticulously alert to detail, and her judgments are sound and sensitive. -- Jahan Ramazani, University of Virginia
