Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics
Compiled by three noted poets, this is an eclectic, stimulating, and informed selection of poets’ remarks on poetry spanning eras, ethnicities, and aesthetics. The 102 selections from nearly as many poets reach back to the Greeks and Romans, then draw on Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sidney, and Milton, on to Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, and Poe, then Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, Rilke, and Pound, concluding with many of our contemporaries, including Hall, Clifton, Mackey, Kunitz, and Rukeyser. The book is divided into three sections. “Musing” concerns issues of inspiration, “Making,” issues of craft, from diction to meter to persona and voice, and “Mapping,” the role of poetry and the poet. Headnotes at the beginning of each selection provide background information about the poet and commentary on the significance of the selection. There is also a useful appendix with a listing of essays arranged according to more specific topics. As the poets write in their introduction: “This book was intended to deepen readers’ understanding of age-old poetic ideas while at the same time pointing out new directions for thinking about poetry, juxtaposing the familiar and the strange, reconfiguring old boundaries, and shaking up stereotypes.
Publisher: University of Arkansas Press
Publish Date: September 1, 2005
Pages: 456
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1557287915
This book is a great collection of writings by and interviews of poets that discuss many aspects of writing poetry. It’s great for poetry classes of any level.
Delighted Reader
Excerpt
The book is divided into three sections, each of which concentrates on a favorite topic of poets writing on poetry. “Musing” concerns issues of inspiration; “Making,” issues of craft, from diction to meter to persona and voice; and “Mapping,” the role of poetry and the poet. While organization within each of the three sections is broadly chronological, we have kept these central topics fluid in order to allow for the most unexpected juxtapositions, the maximum cross-pollination between poets. For the benefit of teachers and readers who desire a more structured approach to making such connections, we have included an appendix with a listing of essays arranged according to more specific topics. Headnotes at the beginning of each selection provide background information about the poet and commentary on the significance of the selection. This book is intended to deepen readers’ understanding of age-old poetic ideas while at the same time pointing out new directions for thinking about poetry, juxtaposing the familiar and the strange, reconfiguring old boundaries, and shaking up stereotypes.