The Music of What Happens – Poems Poets Critics - Hardcover

Vendler, H

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674591526 ISBN 13: 9780674591523

Publisher: Harvard University Press, 1988

Synopsis

Join Professor Helen Vendler in her course lecture on the Yeats poem "Among School Children". View her insightful and passionate analysis along with a condensed reading and student comments on the course.

Helen Vendler has become one of our most trusted companions in reading poetry. Among critics today she has an unrivaled ability to show--lucidly and invitingly--just what a poem does. Insight and wit distinguish these essays, in which Vendler elucidates the function of criticism as well as different critical methods and styles. Poets commented on range from Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz to Silvia Plath, James Merrill, and Amy Clampitt.

About this title

Review

Polite, decisive, and insightful, Vendler is our most distinguished critic of modern poetry. In this collection she deals with writers as diverse as Donald Davie and A. R. Ammons...It is her own likes and dislikes, tirelessly examined and cross-examined, that give her frequent bursts of critical eloquence the foundation of truth. "The Music of What Happens," with its deft, precise treatment of the configurative strategies of Ashbery, Heaney, Ginsberg, Sexton, and others reminds us why, ultimately, we might put the newspaper down and read a poem instead. -- Robert Lindsey, "Bloomsbury Review" put the newspaper down and read a poem instead. tirelessly examined and cross-examined, that give her frequent bursts of critical eloquence the foundation of truth. Vendler is essential, whether one delights or despairs in her views. More, "The Music of What Happens" is the essential Vendler.--G. E. Murray "Chicago Tribune " "The Music of What Happens, " with its deft, precise treatment of the configurative strategies of Ashbery, Heaney, Ginsberg, Sexton, and others reminds us why, ultimately, we might put the newspaper down and read a poem instead.--Robert Lindsey, "Bloomsbury Review " Any criticism that develops so complex a sense of what really good poetry does, and develops it so lovingly, is to be cherished.--Alan Williamson "Boston Globe " Vendler's is an ample book...and will give us enough to go on digesting and arguing about, approving and resisting, for a long time yet.--Charles Tomlinson "Times Literary Supplement "

Synopsis

This collection of recent essays addresses general issues in poetry criticism, discusses the work of major contemporary poets, and introduces the work of newer poets.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0674591526
• ISBN 13: 9780674591523
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 488