American and British Verse in the Twentieth Century: The Poetry that MattersWhy is it that almost no one can quote more than a few words from any American or British poet since (say) Robert Lowell or Philip Larkin? asks critic and poet Colin Falck. This volume is a critical history of 20th-century poetry as well as a study of what the author sees as the decline of that poetry during the century's last three decades. Basing his argument in the ideas of English and German romanticism, and developing further the claims of his Myth, Truth and Literature (1994), Colin Falck provides philosophically grounded discussions of such issues as the need for modern poetry to be a poetry of experience, the relationship between poetry and philosophy, the triumph of talk as modern poetry's prevailing diction, the effects on poetry of postmodernist self-consciousness, the centrality of despair to the modern lyric, the means by which modern poetry can validly engage with history, the place of nature and myth in the poetic imagination, and the revelatory power of rhythm, meter and the singing line. as Hardy, Yeats, Eliot and Stevens (and from some of their 19th-century precursors) all the way through to such acclaimed poets as Jorie Graham and Hugo Williams. His argument calls for a middlebrow revival in response to the highbrow deviation of modernism and the late-20th-century professionalization of poetry. It ends with an ambitious claim for poetry as an inscription of reality as part of an aesthetic fundamentalism which may be the true religion of the future. |
From inside the book
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Page 19
... character is offered to us only in terms of certain areas or aspects of his or her behavior . Here also there are likely to be general ideas at work . The ' love poet ' often has preconceived ideas about what love poems are , or what ...
... character is offered to us only in terms of certain areas or aspects of his or her behavior . Here also there are likely to be general ideas at work . The ' love poet ' often has preconceived ideas about what love poems are , or what ...
Page 20
... characters she evokes in this way are just ordinary people dealing with their situations - becoming souls in a world of circumstances . ( Diction , which in simple - character poems may be simple or stylized , is here more likely to ...
... characters she evokes in this way are just ordinary people dealing with their situations - becoming souls in a world of circumstances . ( Diction , which in simple - character poems may be simple or stylized , is here more likely to ...
Page 67
... character - enhancing irony , as in ' The Garden ' : In her is the end of breeding . Her boredom is exquisite and excessive . She would like someone to speak to her , And is almost afraid that I will commit that indiscretion . Such ...
... character - enhancing irony , as in ' The Garden ' : In her is the end of breeding . Her boredom is exquisite and excessive . She would like someone to speak to her , And is almost afraid that I will commit that indiscretion . Such ...
Common terms and phrases
actual allowed already American American poetry artists become believe British called character close comes common continues critical cultural early effect Eliot emotional English example experience experiencing expression eyes face fact feel forms Frost give given hand happen heart hope human ideas imaginative interest John Berryman kind language later Lawrence leave less letter lines literary literature lives London look Lowell lyric matter meanings meter mind move nature never ordinary ourselves Oxford particular perhaps philosophical poem's poems poet poet's poetic poetry possible present probably question reader reality reason religion religious rhythms Robert seems seen sense shows situation sometimes sound speaker spiritual talk tells things thought traditional true truth turn twentieth century universal usually verse Whitman whole Wordsworth writing written Yeats York