- Table View
- List View
Elizabeth Bishop at Work
by Eleanor CookCritics and biographers praise Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry but have little to say about how it does its sublime work—in the ear and in the mind’s eye. Eleanor Cook examines in detail Bishop’s diction, syntax, rhythm, and meter, her acute sense of place, and her attention to the natural world. Writers, readers, and teachers will all benefit.
Theory of the Lyric
by Jonathan CullerWhat sort of thing is a lyric poem? An intense expression of subjective experience? The fictive speech of a specifiable persona? Examining ancient and modern poems from Sappho to Ashbery, Jonathan Culler reveals the limitations of these two models—the Romantic and the modern—and challenges the assumption that poems exist to be interpreted.
Poet-Critics and the Administration of Culture
by Evan KindleyAfter the 1929 crash, Anglo-American poet-critics grappled with the task of legitimizing literature for public funding and consumption. Modernism, Evan Kindley shows, created a new form of labor for writers to perform and gave them unprecedented say over the administration of culture, with consequences for poetry’s role in society still felt today.
Tender Buttons: Objects, Food, Rooms
by Gertrude SteinA classic work of experimental poetry by a titan of modernist literatureTender Buttons, Stein’s first published work of poetry, debuted in 1914 as a volume of powerful avant-garde expression. This meditation on ordinary living is presented in three compelling sections—“Objects,” “Food,” and “Rooms”—through which Stein delights in experiments with language. Emphasizing rhythm and sonority over traditional grammar, Stein’s wordplay has garnered praise from readers and critics alike. In “A Piece of Coffee,” for example, Stein plays with conventional language and cubist imagery to produce a stunningly original literary effect: A single image is not splendor. Dirty is yellow. A sign of more is not mentioned. A piece of coffee is not a detainer. The resemblance to yellow is dirtier and distincter. The clean mixture is whiter and not coal color, never more coal color than altogether. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.
Why Lyrics Last: Evolution, Cognition, And Shakespeare's Sonnets
by Brian BoydWhy Lyrics Last turns an evolutionary lens on lyric verse, placing the writing of verse within the human disposition to play with pattern. Boyd takes as an extended example the many patterns to be found within Shakespeare’s Sonnets. There, the Bard avoids all narrative and demonstrates the power that verse can have when liberated of story.
Baghdad: The City In Verse
by Reuven SnirBaghdad: The City in Verse captures the essence of life lived in one of the world's enduring metropolises. This unusual anthology offers original translations of 170 Arabic poems from Bedouin, Muslim, Christian, Kurdish, and Jewish poets--most for the first time in English--from Baghdad's founding in the eighth century to the present day.
The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry
by Helen VendlerA Times Higher Education Book of the Week One of our foremost commentators on poetry examines the work of a broad range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English, Irish, and American poets. The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar gathers two decades’ worth of Helen Vendler’s essays, book reviews, and occasional prose—including the 2004 Jefferson Lecture—in a single volume. “It’s one of [Vendler’s] finest books, an impressive summation of a long, distinguished career in which she revisits many of the poets she has venerated over a lifetime and written about previously. Reading it, one can feel her happiness in doing what she loves best. There is scarcely a page in the book where there isn’t a fresh insight about a poet or poetry.” —Charles Simic, New York Review of Books “Vendler has done perhaps more than any other living critic to shape—I might almost say ‘create’—our understanding of poetry in English.” —Joel Brouwer, New York Times Book Review “Poems are artifacts and [Vendler] shows us, often thrillingly, how those poems she considers the best specimens are made…A reader feels that she has thoroughly absorbed her subjects and conveys her understanding with candor, clarity, wit.” —John Greening, Times Literary Supplement
Hearing Things: The Work of Sound in Literature
by Angela LeightonHearing Things is a meditation on sound’s work in literature. Drawing on critical works and the commentaries of many poets and novelists who have paid close attention to the role of the ear in writing and reading, Angela Leighton offers a reconsideration of literature itself as an exercise in hearing. An established critic and poet, Leighton explains how we listen to the printed word, while showing how writers use the expressivity of sound on the silent page. Although her focus is largely on poets—Alfred Tennyson, W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, Walter de la Mare, Wallace Stevens, Elizabeth Bishop, Jorie Graham, and Alice Oswald—Leighton’s scope includes novels, letters, and philosophical writings as well. Her argument is grounded in the specificity of the text under discussion, but one important message emerges from the whole: literature by its very nature commands listening, and listening is a form of understanding that has often been overlooked. Hearing Things offers a renewed call for the kind of criticism that, avoiding the programmatic or purely ideological, remains alert to the work of sound in every literary text.
No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays And Poems
by Václav Havel Perry Link Liu Xiaobo Tienchi Martin-Liao Xia LiuWhen the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on December 10, 2010, its recipient, Liu Xiaobo, was in Jinzhou Prison, serving an eleven-year sentence for what Beijing called “incitement to subvert state power.” In Oslo, actress Liv Ullmann read a long statement the activist had prepared for his 2009 trial. It read in part: “I stand by the convictions I expressed in my ‘June Second Hunger Strike Declaration’ twenty years ago—I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies.” That statement is one of the pieces in this book, which includes writings spanning two decades, providing insight into all aspects of Chinese life. Liu speaks pragmatically, yet with deep-seated passion, about peasant land disputes, Han Chinese in Tibet, child slavery, the Internet in China, the contemporary craze for Confucius, and the Tiananmen massacre. Also presented are poems written for his wife, Liu Xia, public documents, and a foreword by Václav Havel. These works not only chronicle a leading dissident’s struggle against tyranny but enrich the record of universal longing for freedom and dignity.
Milosz: A Biography
by Andrzej FranaszekAndrzej Franaszek’s award-winning biography of Czeslaw Milosz—winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—recounts the poet’s odyssey through WWI, the Bolshevik revolution, the Nazi invasion of Poland, and the USSR’s postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. This edition contains a new introduction by the translators, along with maps and a chronology.
No Enemies, No Hatred: Selected Essays And Poems
by Xiaobo Liu E. Perry Link Tienchi Martin-LiaoWhen the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on December 10, 2010, its recipient, Liu Xiaobo, was in Jinzhou Prison, serving an eleven-year sentence for what Beijing called “incitement to subvert state power.” In Oslo, actress Liv Ullmann read a long statement the activist had prepared for his 2009 trial. It read in part: “I stand by the convictions I expressed in my ‘June Second Hunger Strike Declaration’ twenty years ago—I have no enemies and no hatred. None of the police who monitored, arrested, and interrogated me, none of the prosecutors who indicted me, and none of the judges who judged me are my enemies.” That statement is one of the pieces in this book, which includes writings spanning two decades, providing insight into all aspects of Chinese life. Liu speaks pragmatically, yet with deep-seated passion, about peasant land disputes, Han Chinese in Tibet, child slavery, the Internet in China, the contemporary craze for Confucius, and the Tiananmen massacre. Also presented are poems written for his wife, Liu Xia, public documents, and a foreword by Václav Havel. These works not only chronicle a leading dissident’s struggle against tyranny but enrich the record of universal longing for freedom and dignity.
Milosz: A Biography
by Andrzej FranaszekAndrzej Franaszek’s award-winning biography of Czeslaw Milosz—winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature—recounts the poet’s odyssey through WWI, the Bolshevik revolution, the Nazi invasion of Poland, and the USSR’s postwar dominance of Eastern Europe. This edition contains a new introduction by the translators, along with maps and a chronology.
Complete Poems: Complete Poems
by John KeatsHere is the first reliable edition of Keats's complete poems designed expressly for general readers and students. Jack Stillinger provides helpful explanatory notes to the poems which give dates of composition, identify quotations and allusions, gloss names and words not included in the ordinary desk dictionary, and refer the reader to the best critical interpretations of the poems. The new introduction provides central facts about Keats's life and career, describes the themes of his best work, and speculates on the causes of his greatness.
80: Poems by Roger McGough
by Roger McGoughThere are eighty of Roger McGough's favourite poems in this hugely enjoyable collection, gathered together into a new volume to celebrate Roger's 80th birthday! Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, but always inventive, the enormous variety of poems from this hugely popular poet will never cease to amaze and delight children of all ages.
Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry
by Ralph Waldo Emerson"Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Major Poetry "presents a selection of definitively edited texts that remind us why Emerson s poetry matters and why he remains one of our most important theoreticians of verse. Drawn chiefly from the multivolume "Collected Works, "each poem is accompanied by a headnote for the student and general reader."
The Penguin Book of Haiku
by Adam L. KernThe first Penguin anthology of Japanese haiku, in vivid new translations by Adam L. Kern. Now a global poetry, the haiku was originally a Japanese verse form that flourished from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries. Although renowned for its brevity, usually running three lines long in seventeen syllables, and by its use of natural imagery to make Zen-like observations about reality, in fact the haiku is much more: it can be erotic, funny, crude and mischievous. Presenting over a thousand exemplars in vivid and engaging translations, this anthology offers an illuminating introduction to this widely celebrated, if misunderstood, art form. Adam L. Kern's new translations are accompanied here by the original Japanese and short commentaries on the poems, as well as an introduction and illustrations from the period.
The House with Only an Attic and a Basement
by Kathryn Maris'But back to the summer day the spikegrazed my brother's scalp: I slept beside himin his racing car bed and my father woke meand slapped my face, thinking, I assume, of sex,whereas I was already thinking about death.'Urban, suburban, sharply observant, now obsessive and now urbane, the poems in Kathryn Maris's third book range with a dry wit over such subjects as parenthood, marriage, adultery, the politics of children's sports contests, female prison and psychoanalysis. The House with Only an Attic and a Basement is that rare thing: a darkly funny collection of poems that courses with keen intelligence, yet wears its learning lightly so that it is a pleasure to stride along with every poem.
Penguin Modern Poets 5: Occasional Wild Parties (Penguin Modern Poets)
by Sam Riviere Frederick Seidel Kathryn MarisOccasional Wild Parties brings together Sam Riviere, one of the most discussed of the new generation of British poets, whose 'post-internet' poetry sees him acting now as scribe, now as DJ, taking in everything from technologized romance to celebrity culture as filtered through Kim Kardashian's make-up routine; the 'elegant ghoul' Frederick Seidel, zooming through the dark underbelly of international high society on his Ducati racing bike; and the wonderfully observant Kathryn Maris, whose work ranges with a dark wit over incomprehensible deities, wayward mothers, the politics of children's sports contests, and psychoanalysis. All three lift the lid on their corners of civilized society to show the less glittering realities that lie just beneath the surface."On the verge of perpetrating acts of artistic barbarism"I perceived a spoon as the title of a plate of food"- SAM RIVIERE, 'Mindfulness'"Deer garter-belt across our visionAnd stand there waiting for our decision."Our only decision was how to cook the venison.I am civilized butI see the silenceAnd write the words for the thought balloon."- FREDERICK SEIDEL, 'Kill Poem'"The man in the basement wrote stories about heroin.The woman in the attic read stories with heroines.The woman in the attic noticed a bruise that ran from the top to the base of her thigh.The bruise looked like Europe.The man in the basement was in love with the sister of the secretive man who loved him more.He whooped to the woman, 'You killed your student?'To himself he wept, 'I killed my father.'"- KATHRYN MARIS, 'The House with Only an Attic and a Basement'
Penguin Modern Poets 6: Die Deeper into Life
by Claudia Rankine Maggie Nelson Denise RileyThe Penguin Modern Poets are succinct, collectible, lovingly-assembled guides to the richness and diversity of contemporary poetry, from the UK, America and beyond. Every volume brings together representative selections from the work of three poets now writing, allowing the seasoned poetry lover and the curious reader alike to encounter our most exciting new voices.Volume 6, Dark Looks, features the work of Maggie Nelson and Claudia Rankine, the two American poets who, in hybrid books bridging the divide between poetry, lyric prose, life-writing and theory such as Bluets, The Argonauts, Don't Let Me Be Lonely and Citizen, have transformed the literary landscape over the last 15 years, alongside that of Denise Riley, who for decades has been exploring closely related concerns - motherhood; identity and oppression; loss; the language and words that build, or assault, our selves - as one of the best-kept secrets of British poetry, now fittingly recognized by a string of shortlistings and awards. These are writers who combine deep thought with deep feeling to illuminate our world, how we suffer in it, how we resist it, and how we can live with and love it.
The Peace of Wild Things: And Other Poems
by Wendell BerryIf you stop and look around you, you'll start to see. Tall marigolds darkening. A spring wind blowing. The woods awake with sound. On the wooden porch, your love smiling. Dew-wet red berries in a cup. On the hills, the beginnings of green, clover and grass to be pasture. The fowls singing and then settling for the night. Bright, silent, thousands of stars. You come into the peace of simple things. From the author of the 'compelling' and 'luminous' essays of The World-Ending Fire comes a slim volume of poems. Tender and intimate, these are consoling songs of hope and of healing; short, simple meditations on love, death, friendship, memory and belonging. They celebrate and elevate what is sensuous about life, and invite us to pause and appreciate what is good in life, to stop and savour our fleeting moments of earthly enjoyment. And, when fear for the future keeps us awake at night, to come into the peace of wild things.
Hera Lindsay Bird
by Hera Lindsay BirdNew Zealand's best-selling poetry collection, from the mysterious force behind such classics as 'Monica' (as in, the one from Friends) and 'Keats is Dead so F**k Me from Behind'this impressive debut has established Hera Lindsay Bird as a good girl......with many beneficial thoughts and feelings......with themes as varied as snow and tears, the poems in this collection shine with the fantastic cream of who she is................juxtaposing many classical and modern breezesBird turns her prescient eye on love and loss, and what emerges is like a helicopter in fog......or a bejewelled Christmas sleigh, gliding triumphantly through the contemporary aesthetic desert.........this is at once an intelligent and compelling fantasy of tenderness......heart-breaking and charged with trees......without once sacrificing the forest............whether you are masturbating luxuriously in your parents' sleepout....................or pushing a pork roast home in a vintage pram...................this is the book for you.............................................heroically and compulsively stupid.............................................................................................................................whipping you once again into medieval sunlight.PRAISE FOR HERA LINDSAY BIRD'I think there's a pretty strong case which suggests Hera Lindsay Bird is like the most exciting newish poet in NZ' - Steve Braunias'On more than one occasion, while working through a poem, I have found myself asking, what would Hera Lindsay Bird do?' - Bill Manhire'Hi, dear, we have to say how much we enjoyed, if right word, the Hate poem. Really made us think, loved the line about the ancient cannon' - Text message from Ashleigh Young's mum'The wickedest problem in Hera Lindsay Bird is not sex but taste' - John Newton
Wade in the Water: Poems
by Tracy K. SmithIn Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith boldly ties America's contemporary moment both to the nation's fraught founding history and to a sense of the spirit, the everlasting. These are poems of sliding scale: some capture a flicker of song or memory; some collage an array of documents and voices; and some push past the known world into the haunted, the holy. Smith's signature voice-inquisitive, lyrical, and wry-turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother, and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men, and violence. Here, private utterance becomes part of a larger choral arrangement as the collection widens to include erasures of The Declaration of Independence and the correspondence between slave owners, a found poem comprised of evidence of corporate pollution and accounts of near-death experiences, a sequence of letters written by African Americans enlisted in the Civil War, and the survivors' reports of recent immigrants and refugees. Wade in the Water is a potent and luminous book by one of America's essential poets.
Calling a Wolf a Wolf
by Kaveh AkbarA POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATIONI could not be held responsiblefor desirehe could not be held at allTracking the joys and pains of the path through addiction, and wrestling with desire, inheritance and faith, Calling a Wolf a Wolf is the darkly sumptuous debut from award-winning poet Kaveh Akbar. These are powerful, intimate poems of thirst: for alcohol, for other bodies, for knowledge and for life.'The struggle from late youth on, with and without God, agony, narcotics and love, is a torment rarely recorded with such sustained eloquence and passion as you will find in this collection'FANNY HOWE'Compelling . . . strange . . . always beautiful' ROXANE GAY, AUTHOR OF BAD FEMINIST AND HUNGER'Truly brilliant'JOHN GREEN, AUTHOR OF THE FAULT IN OUR STARS'A breathtaking addition to the canon of addiction literature'PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (STARRED REVIEW)
American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin (Penguin Poets Ser.)
by Terrance HayesThe black poet would love to say his century beganWith Hughes or God forbid, Wheatley, but actuallyIt began with all the poetry weirdos & worriers, warriors,Poetry whiners & winos falling from ship bows, sunsetBridges & windows. In a second I'll tell you how littleWriting rescues.So begins this astonishing, muscular sequence by one of America's best-selling and most acclaimed poets. Over 70 poems, each titled 'American Sonnet for my Past and Future Assassin' and shot through with the vernacular energy of popular culture, Terrance Hayes manoeuvres his way between touching domestic visions, stories of love, loss and creation, tributes to the fallen and blistering denunciations of the enemies of the good.American Sonnets builds a living picture of the whole self, and the whole human, even as it opens to the view the dividing lines of race, gender and political oppression which define the early 21st Century. It is compassionate, hilarious, melancholy, bewildered - and unstoppably, rhythmically compelling, as few books can hope to be.
Songs of Innocence and of Experience: Shewing The Two Contrary States Of The Human Soul (Penguin Clothbound Poetry)
by William BlakeA collectible new Penguin Classics series: stunning, clothbound editions of ten favourite poets, which present each poet's most famous book of verse as it was originally published. Designed by the acclaimed Coralie Bickford-Smith and beautifully set, these slim, A format volumes are the ultimate gift editions for poetry lovers. Songs of Innocence and Experience is an illustrated collection of poems by William Blake, a seminal figure of the Romantic Movement. The volume was published in two parts with Songs of Innocence being published in 1789 and Songs of Experience in 1794. In the volume Blake juxtaposes the innocent world of childhood with the corrupt and repressed one of adults. Many of the poems are in pairs enabling the reader to see the same situation first from the perspective of innocence and then from that of experience. This collection includes some of his greatest poems including 'The Lamb', 'The Chimney Sweeper' and 'The Tyger'.