Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2021"
"Her book is more than a catalog of howlers; its aim is not to shame poets for their errors but to question critics’ attempts to explain away those errors at all costs. . . . Maybe if gatekeeping were more rigorous, logrolling less obvious, we could make a stronger case for the greatness of poetry. But McAlpine suggests another tactic: not limiting the number of poems we define as valuable, but amending the way we talk about poems that we do value."
---Evan Kindley, New York Review of Books"
The Poet's Mistake is careful and painstaking. . . . McAlpine's cautious approach allows her to make as much of her material as possible, and increasingly lends authority. A reader attempting to catch her out will frequently find that she has already thought of a more convincing explanation."
---Graeme Richardson, Times Literary Supplement"That her central argument — poets aren’t infallible, sometimes mistakes are simply that — should be an outlier suggests that an unduly deferential approach to literary criticism has been allowed to proliferate among the towers of learning. . . . [This] book. . . has a useful role to play, albeit in the unlikely cause of bringing poets, or at least their most complaisant enablers, down a peg or two."
---Declan Ryan, Los Angeles Review of Books"McAlpine displays a sensitive ear, a command of poetic history, and a critical intelligence that makes fine distinctions clear and meaningful.
The Poet’s Mistake is a model of good academic criticism."
---Anthony Domestico, Commonweal Magazine"McAlpine’s point is that accuracy is as important in poetry as in fiction, that intentionality, however difficult that might be to determine, is a factor one must consider, and that unconscious mistakes differ from naïve errors. . . . This study is convincingly argued, delightfully written, fascinating in its examples, and well worth a careful read." * Choice Reviews *
