Title:
The virtues of poetry / James Longenbach.
Author:
Longenbach, James, author.
Publication Information:
Minneapolis, Minnesota : Graywolf Press, [2013]
Call Number:
PN1042 .L665 2013
Abstract:
Twelve interconnected essays that describe the ways in which particular virtues are enacted in poetry.
"The Virtues of Poetry is a... work of twelve interconnected essays, each of which describes the way in which a particular excellence is enacted in poetry. James Longenbach closely reads poems by Shakespeare, Donne, Blake, Keats, Dickinson, Yeats, Pound, Bishop, and Ashbery (among others), sometimes exploring the ways in which these writers transmuted the material of their lives into art and always emphasizing that the notions of excellence we derive from art are fluid, never fixed. Provocative, funny, and astute, The Virtues of Poetry is indispensable for readers, teachers, and writers. Longenbach reminds us that poetry delivers meaning in exacting ways, and that it is through its precision that we experience this art's lasting virtues." -- Publisher's description.
ISBN:
9781555976378
Physical Description:
xi, 169 pages ; 21 cm
Contents:
The various light -- Best thought -- Less than everything -- Writing badly -- The door ajar -- Infinitude -- A fine excess -- Correct catastrophe -- The visible core -- The opposite of risk -- Poetry thinking -- All changed.
Personal Author:
