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Who Killed American Poetry?: From National Obsession to Elite Possession
by Karen L. KilcupThroughout the 19th century, American poetry was a profoundly populist literary form. It circulated in New England magazines and Southern newspapers; it was read aloud in taverns, homes, and schools across the country. Antebellum reviewers envisioned poetry as the touchstone democratic genre, and their Civil War–era counterparts celebrated its motivating power, singing poems on battlefields. Following the war, however, as criticism grew more professionalized and American literature emerged as an academic subject, reviewers increasingly elevated difficult, dispassionate writing and elite readers over their supposedly common counterparts, thereby separating “authentic” poetry for intellectuals from “popular” poetry for everyone else.\ Conceptually and methodologically unique among studies of 19th-century American poetry, Who Killed American Poetry? not only charts changing attitudes toward American poetry, but also applies these ideas to the work of representative individual poets. Closely analyzing hundreds of reviews and critical essays, Karen L. Kilcup tracks the century’s developing aesthetic standards and highlights the different criteria reviewers used to assess poetry based on poets’ class, gender, ethnicity, and location. She shows that, as early as the 1820s, critics began to marginalize some kinds of emotional American poetry, a shift many scholars have attributed primarily to the late-century emergence of affectively restrained modernist ideals. Mapping this literary critical history enables us to more readily apprehend poetry’s status in American culture—both in the past and present—and encourages us to scrutinize the standards of academic criticism that underwrite contemporary aesthetics and continue to constrain poetry’s appeal. Who American Killed Poetry? enlarges our understanding of American culture over the past two hundred years and will interest scholars in literary studies, historical poetics, American studies, gender studies, canon criticism, genre studies, the history of criticism, and affect studies. It will also appeal to poetry readers and those who enjoy reading about American cultural history.
Who Let the Words Out?: Poems by the winner of the Laugh Out Loud Award
by Joshua SeigalA marvellous new collection of poems by Joshua Seigal, two-time winner of the Laugh Out Loud Awards – the UK's only prize for funny children's books. Someone has let the words out... and they're going to have some fun!'Joshua Seigal is definitely my new favourite poet.' Books for Keeps'Joshua Seigal is a rising star in the children's poetry world...' lovereading4kidsIn this brand new collection of poems from award-winning poet Joshua Seigal, words take on a whole new meaning; enter a world of creative word play with silly, funny and downright hilarious poems! With poems about cuddling tigers, pesky pet fleas and even what to do if your teacher is ever turned into a chicken, Who Let the Words Out? is a must-have for imaginative young readers aged 7+.Book Band Brown - ideal for age 7+
Who Let the Words Out?: Poems by the winner of the Laugh Out Loud Award
by Joshua SeigalA marvellous new collection of poems by Joshua Seigal, two-time winner of the Laugh Out Loud Awards – the UK's only prize for funny children's books. Someone has let the words out... and they're going to have some fun!'Joshua Seigal is definitely my new favourite poet.' Books for Keeps'Joshua Seigal is a rising star in the children's poetry world...' lovereading4kidsIn this brand new collection of poems words take on a whole new meaning; enter a world of creative word play with silly, funny and downright hilarious poems! With poems about cuddling tigers, pesky pet fleas and even what to do if your teacher is ever turned into a chicken, Who Let the Words Out? is a must-have for imaginative young readers aged 7+. Joshua Seigal is a two-time-winner of the Laugh Out Loud awards (also known as the Lollies) in 2020 with I Bet I Can Make You Laugh and in 2023 with Yapping Away.Book Band Brown - ideal for age 7+
Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from “Poetry” Magazine
by Fred Sasaki and Don Share Don ShareWho reads poetry? We know that poets do, but what about the rest of us? When and why do we turn to verse? Seeking the answer, Poetry magazine since 2005 has published a column called “The View From Here,” which has invited readers “from outside the world of poetry” to describe what has drawn them to poetry. Over the years, the incredibly diverse set of contributors have included philosophers, journalists, musicians, and artists, as well as doctors and soldiers, an iron-worker, an anthropologist, and an economist. This collection brings together fifty compelling pieces, which are in turns surprising, provocative, touching, and funny. In one essay, musician Neko Case calls poetry “a delicate, pretty lady with a candy exoskeleton on the outside of her crepe-paper dress.” In another, anthropologist Helen Fisher turns to poetry while researching the effects of love on the brain, “As other anthropologists have studied fossils, arrowheads, or pot shards to understand human thought, I studied poetry. . . . I wasn’t disappointed: everywhere poets have described the emotional fallout produced by the brain’s eruptions.” Even film critic Roger Ebert memorized the poetry of e. e. cummings, and the rapper Rhymefest attests here to the self-actualizing power of poems: “Words can create worlds, and I’ve discovered that poetry can not only be read but also lived out. My life is a poem.” Music critic Alex Ross tells us that he keeps a paperback of The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens on his desk next to other, more utilitarian books like a German dictionary, a King James Bible, and a Macintosh troubleshooting manual. Who Reads Poetry offers a truly unique and broad selection of perspectives and reflections, proving that poetry can be read by everyone. No matter what you’re seeking, you can find it within the lines of a poem.
Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from “Poetry” Magazine
by Fred Sasaki and Don Share Don ShareWho reads poetry? We know that poets do, but what about the rest of us? When and why do we turn to verse? Seeking the answer, Poetry magazine since 2005 has published a column called “The View From Here,” which has invited readers “from outside the world of poetry” to describe what has drawn them to poetry. Over the years, the incredibly diverse set of contributors have included philosophers, journalists, musicians, and artists, as well as doctors and soldiers, an iron-worker, an anthropologist, and an economist. This collection brings together fifty compelling pieces, which are in turns surprising, provocative, touching, and funny. In one essay, musician Neko Case calls poetry “a delicate, pretty lady with a candy exoskeleton on the outside of her crepe-paper dress.” In another, anthropologist Helen Fisher turns to poetry while researching the effects of love on the brain, “As other anthropologists have studied fossils, arrowheads, or pot shards to understand human thought, I studied poetry. . . . I wasn’t disappointed: everywhere poets have described the emotional fallout produced by the brain’s eruptions.” Even film critic Roger Ebert memorized the poetry of e. e. cummings, and the rapper Rhymefest attests here to the self-actualizing power of poems: “Words can create worlds, and I’ve discovered that poetry can not only be read but also lived out. My life is a poem.” Music critic Alex Ross tells us that he keeps a paperback of The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens on his desk next to other, more utilitarian books like a German dictionary, a King James Bible, and a Macintosh troubleshooting manual. Who Reads Poetry offers a truly unique and broad selection of perspectives and reflections, proving that poetry can be read by everyone. No matter what you’re seeking, you can find it within the lines of a poem.
Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from “Poetry” Magazine
by Fred Sasaki Don ShareWho reads poetry? We know that poets do, but what about the rest of us? When and why do we turn to verse? Seeking the answer, Poetry magazine since 2005 has published a column called “The View From Here,” which has invited readers “from outside the world of poetry” to describe what has drawn them to poetry. Over the years, the incredibly diverse set of contributors have included philosophers, journalists, musicians, and artists, as well as doctors and soldiers, an iron-worker, an anthropologist, and an economist. This collection brings together fifty compelling pieces, which are in turns surprising, provocative, touching, and funny. In one essay, musician Neko Case calls poetry “a delicate, pretty lady with a candy exoskeleton on the outside of her crepe-paper dress.” In another, anthropologist Helen Fisher turns to poetry while researching the effects of love on the brain, “As other anthropologists have studied fossils, arrowheads, or pot shards to understand human thought, I studied poetry. . . . I wasn’t disappointed: everywhere poets have described the emotional fallout produced by the brain’s eruptions.” Even film critic Roger Ebert memorized the poetry of e. e. cummings, and the rapper Rhymefest attests here to the self-actualizing power of poems: “Words can create worlds, and I’ve discovered that poetry can not only be read but also lived out. My life is a poem.” Music critic Alex Ross tells us that he keeps a paperback of The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens on his desk next to other, more utilitarian books like a German dictionary, a King James Bible, and a Macintosh troubleshooting manual. Who Reads Poetry offers a truly unique and broad selection of perspectives and reflections, proving that poetry can be read by everyone. No matter what you’re seeking, you can find it within the lines of a poem.
Who Reads Poetry: 50 Views from “Poetry” Magazine
by Fred Sasaki Don ShareWho reads poetry? We know that poets do, but what about the rest of us? When and why do we turn to verse? Seeking the answer, Poetry magazine since 2005 has published a column called “The View From Here,” which has invited readers “from outside the world of poetry” to describe what has drawn them to poetry. Over the years, the incredibly diverse set of contributors have included philosophers, journalists, musicians, and artists, as well as doctors and soldiers, an iron-worker, an anthropologist, and an economist. This collection brings together fifty compelling pieces, which are in turns surprising, provocative, touching, and funny. In one essay, musician Neko Case calls poetry “a delicate, pretty lady with a candy exoskeleton on the outside of her crepe-paper dress.” In another, anthropologist Helen Fisher turns to poetry while researching the effects of love on the brain, “As other anthropologists have studied fossils, arrowheads, or pot shards to understand human thought, I studied poetry. . . . I wasn’t disappointed: everywhere poets have described the emotional fallout produced by the brain’s eruptions.” Even film critic Roger Ebert memorized the poetry of e. e. cummings, and the rapper Rhymefest attests here to the self-actualizing power of poems: “Words can create worlds, and I’ve discovered that poetry can not only be read but also lived out. My life is a poem.” Music critic Alex Ross tells us that he keeps a paperback of The Palm at the End of the Mind by Wallace Stevens on his desk next to other, more utilitarian books like a German dictionary, a King James Bible, and a Macintosh troubleshooting manual. Who Reads Poetry offers a truly unique and broad selection of perspectives and reflections, proving that poetry can be read by everyone. No matter what you’re seeking, you can find it within the lines of a poem.
Who Wants to Be a Jewish Writer?: And Other Essays
by Adam KirschFrom one of today’s keenest critics comes a collection of essays on poetry, religion, and the connection between the two Adam Kirsch is one of today’s finest literary critics. This collection brings together his essays on poetry, religion, and the intersections between them, with a particular focus on Jewish literature. He explores the definition of Jewish literature, the relationship between poetry and politics, and the future of literary reputation in the age of the internet. Several essays look at the way Jewish writers such as Stefan Zweig and Isaac Deutscher, who coined the phrase “the non†‘Jewish Jew,” have dealt with politics. Kirsch also examines questions of spirituality and morality in the writings of contemporary poets, including Christian Wiman, Kay Ryan, and Seamus Heaney. He closes by asking why so many American Jewish writers have resisted that category, inviting us to consider “Is there such a thing as Jewish literature?”
The Whole Difference: Selected Writings of Hugo von Hofmannsthal
by Hugo Von Hofmannsthal J. D. McClatchyHugo von Hofmannsthal is one of the modern era's most important writers, but his fame as Richard Strauss's pioneering collaborator on such operas as Der Rosenkavalier and Die Frau ohne Schatten has obscured his other remarkable writings: his precocious lyric poetry, inventive short fiction, keen essays, and visionary plays. The Whole Difference, which includes new translations as well as classic ones long out of print, is a fresh introduction to the enormous range of this extraordinary artist, and the most comprehensive collection of Hofmannsthal's writings in English. Selected and edited by the poet and librettist J. D. McClatchy, this collection includes early lyric poems; short prose works, including "The Tale of Night Six Hundred and Seventy-Two," "A Tale of the Cavalry," and the famous "Letter of Lord Chandos"; two full-length plays, The Difficult Man and The Tower; as well as the first act of The Cavalier of the Rose. From the glittering salons of imperial Vienna to the bloodied ruins of Europe after the Great War, the landscape of Hofmannsthal's world stretches across the extremes of experience. This collection reflects those extremes, including both the sparkling social comedy of "the difficult man" Hans Karl, so sensitive that he cannot choose between the two women he loves, and the haunting fictional letter to Francis Bacon in which Lord Chandos explains why he can no longer write. Complete with an introduction by McClatchy, this collection reveals an artist whose unusual subtlety and depth will enthrall readers.
The Whole & Rain-domed Universe
by Colette BryceThe Whole & Rain-domed Universe is Colette Bryce's much-anticipated follow-up to Self-Portrait in the Dark. The book presents the reader with an extraordinarily clear-eyed, vivid and sometimes disturbing account of growing up in Derry during the Troubles, with many ghosts both raised and laid to rest. The Whole & Rain-domed Universe is a riveting poetic document of the time; Bryce turns her clear, singing line to darker ends than she has before, describing not just the warmth and eccentricity of family and the claustrophobia of home-life, but also the atmosphere of suspicion, and the real and present threat of terrible violence. Bryce is one of the most widely acclaimed poets of the post-Heaney generation, and this is her most directly personal and compelling work to date.
Who's on First?: New and Selected Poems (Phoenix Poets)
by Lloyd SchwartzNew and selected poems by renowned poet Lloyd Schwartz. For more than four decades, readers and critics have found Lloyd Schwartz’s poems unlike anyone else’s—a rare combination of the heartbreaking and the hilarious. With his ear for the poetry of the vernacular, Schwartz offers us a memorable cast of characters—both real and imagined, foolish and oracular. Readers experience his mother’s piercing flashes of memory, the perverse comic wisdom of Gracie Allen, the uninhibited yet loving exhibitionists of antique pornography, and eager travelers crossing America in a club-car or waiting in a Brazilian airport. Schwartz listens to these people without judging—understanding that they are all trying to live their lives, whenever possible, with tenderness, humor, and grace. Who’s on First? brings together a selection of poems from all of Schwartz’s previous collections along with eagerly awaited new poems, highlighting his formal inventiveness in tangling and untangling the yarn of comedy and pathos. Underlying all of these poems is the question of what it takes and what it costs to make art.
The Who's Whonicorn of Sing-along Unicorns
by Kes GrayDid you know that unicorns LOVE to sing? A laugh-out-loud, read-aloud picture-book guide to the most talented unicorns ever, from the author of the Oi Frog and Friends series, Kes Gray, and illustrator of The Dinosaur that Pooped series, Garry Parsons.Dive into this delightfully silly unicorn Who's Who and get ready to discover:- ONE, TWO . . . ONE, TWOnicorns who always use a microphone- WECAN'THEARYOUnicorns who always forget to turn their microphone on- BLUESUEDESHOEnicorns who love rock 'n' roll- DOOBYDOOnicorns who prefer soul- HAPPYBIRTHDAYTOYOUnicorns who only know one song- plus some familiar unicorns you may have seen before!This funny and surprising follow-up to The Who's Whonicorn of Unicorns is jam-packed with joyful wordplay, hilarious illustrations and the most magical, musical unicorns you've never heard of! It's also a brilliantly inventive way to encourage children's creativity and imagination.
The Who's Whonicorn of Unicorns: from the author of Oi Frog!
by Kes GrayA laugh-out-loud, read-aloud picture-book guide to the wildest and wackiest unicorns you can imagine, from the author of the Oi Frog and Friends series, Kes Gray, and illustrator of The Dinosaur that Pooped series, Garry Parsons.Dive into this delightfully silly unicorn Who's Who and get ready to discover:- spooky BOO!nicorns- polite AFTERYOUnicorns- floating BALLOONincorns- smelly POOnicorns- clumsy BUMPINTOnicorns- and so many more!This funny and surprising new take on the unicorn craze is jam-packed with joyful wordplay and hilarious illustrations. It's also a brilliantly inventive way to encourage children's creativity and imagination.*A fully illustrated version of Daisy and Gabby's story from the bestselling Daisy and the Trouble with Unicorns*
Why Brownlee Left
by Paul MuldoonWhy Brownlee Left, Paul Muldoon's third collection, was published in 1980.
Why Dogs Stopped Flying
by Kenneth BrewerThe solid rightness of image after image in Ken Brewer’s poetry was never better than in Why Dogs Stopped Flying. His familiar style is plain-spoken, his humor reliable and self-ironic. Yet, in this collection perhaps more than his earlier work, the particularity of the poet’s insight into the physical world and the warmth of his affection for it combine to create an unexpected transcendence. Beasts and bodies are transformed in his lines, and our dim, unremarkable lives on this shadowed earth become somehow more luminous—small words to the moon, small suns opening in the dark.
Why?... How Long?: Studies on Voice(s) of Lamentation Rooted in Biblical Hebrew Poetry (The Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies)
by Mark J. Boda LeAnn Snow Flesher Carol J. DempseyThis volume is born out of two years of academic presentations on laments in the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section at the Society of Biblical Literature (2006-2007). The topics of these papers are gathered around the theme of "voice." The two parts to this volume: 1) provide fresh readings of familiar texts as they are read through the lens of lamentation, and 2) deepen our understanding of Israel and God as lamenter and lamentee. In the second section the focus on topics such as Israel's "unbelieving faith" (i.e., strong accusations against the God on whom they have complete reliance and trust), the unrighteous lamenter, and God's acceptance and rejection of the people's lament(s), deepens our understanding of Israel's culture and practice of lamentation. The final essay notes how the expression of despair is in tension with the poetic devices that contain it.
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.
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.
Why Milton Matters: A New Preface to His Writings
by J. WittreichWittreich demonstrates why Milton may prove to be the poet for the new millennium, in a book of interest to scholars and general readers. It engages the canonical Milton, as well as the Milton of popular culture, and uses the tools of theory- especially affective stylistics and reception history, to read Milton in his historical moment and our own.
Wicked Enchantment: Selected Poems
by Wanda Coleman'Essential reading' Roger Robinson'Hateful and hilarious, heartbroke and hellbent' Mary Karr'Sure, wise and devastating . . . a joy' Caleb Azumah Nelson'Wanda Coleman is not just wickedly wise, she is transcendent' Washington PostNobody wrote about police hassle like she did. Nobody wrote about making ends meet, about the history of the slave trade or the comedy of the daily grind, with the same breathtaking originality and brio; and few writers, before or since, have had the courage to write with such honesty about their everyday experience of life - and love - in an unjust world.This is the first ever UK publication of the poetry of Wanda Coleman: a beat-up, broke and Black woman who wrote with defiance, humour and clarity about her life on the margins, and who went overlooked by the establishment for decades - even as she was known colloquially as 'the unofficial poet laureate of Los Angeles'.Wicked Enchantment gathers 130 of Coleman's poems in a selection by Terrance Hayes. Funny, angry, endlessly alive and written with an immediacy and frankness that captivate, here is the essential work of a poet of fierce resistance and self-belief against the odds.
Wicked World! (Puffin Poetry Ser.)
by Benjamin ZephaniahA brand new brilliant collection from the ground-breaking poet, Benjamin Zephaniah. His verse explores people and places, cultures, nationalities and tribes. Includes poems about Inuits, Celts, the history of Britain, Maories, the Dalai Lama, the North and South Poles, and much more - a real tour of the world.
The Wickedest
by null Caleb Femi'Atmospheric and intoxicating … The Wickedest is a heady night in the dance' CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS Caleb Femi returns with a landmark, life-affirming new poetry collection, The Wickedest. This is a minute-by-minute depiction of a typical night at a legendary monthly house party known as 'The Wickedest'. Here, we meet a vivid cast of characters, young and old, all surfing a revelry steeped in camaraderie, community, desire and a spirit of jubilant defiance. A modern epic, The Wickedest explores the institution of shoobs or house parties and their vital role within working-class communities. The poems range from classical English sonnets to experimental forms and are immersively interwoven with photographs, text messages and ephemera. The collection playfully dissembles parties – in space, sound, law and bureaucracy – to document the precarious existence of our nightlife venues. In Caleb Femi's inimitable, cinematic style the book builds to a crescendo that is at once euphoric and grief-soaked. The Wickedest calls us to cast our minds to the moments we stood surrounded by our loved ones on a dancefloor, arms outstretched, and freed ourselves from the weight of reality to float. 'A joyous, lyrical read' YOMI ADEGOKE 'A near-holy experience' JONATHAN ESCOFFERY 'This is poetry that moves and is felt in the body' ANDREW MCMILLAN
Wide Awake (Dinosaur Juniors #3)
by Rob BiddulphIt’s bedtime, but Winnie is wide awake… Get your young ones to sleep with book three of the incredible Dinosaur Juniors series from the award-winning Rob Biddulph!
Widening Income Inequality: Poems
by Frederick SeidelSeidel is the great controversialist of American poetry. Dubbed a 'transgressive adventurer,' a 'demonic gentleman,' a 'triumphant outsider,' a 'great poet of innocence,' and 'an example of the dangerous Male of the Species', his sly, witty and wide-eyed poems seem earnest one moment and flippant the next, and will see him rotating his caustic fire from high-society cocktail parties to street-level poverty, genocide to Obamacare, New York to Syria. He's never more than a turn-line from humour, and it is often when he is at his funniest that he is also at his most shocking.The Independent said of his last collection: 'There is no contemporary poet writing in English as witty, as shrewd, as touching and as debonair as Frederick Seidel. That's a lot of praise, but he surely merits it.'Widening Income Inequality, Seidel's new collection, is a rhymed magnificence of sexual, historical, and cultural exuberance. Rarely has poetry been this dapper, or this dire, or this true.
Wild
by Ben OkriBen Okri is a prolific Booker-Prize winning novelist and essayist, but has published only two collections of poetry. The first was An African Elegy and the second was Mental Fight. Both were highly regarded. Thus a third collection is a literary event, especially since 13 years have elapsed since his last.As acclaimed for his poetic vision as for the beauty of his language, in these poems Okri captures both the tenderness and the fragility, as well as the depths and the often hidden directions of our lives. To him, the 'wild' is an alternative to the familiar; an essential place in the journey where energy meets freedom, where art meets the elemental, where chaos can be honed. The wild is our link to the stars...Ranging across a wide variety of subjects, from the autobiographical to the philosophical, from war to love, from nature to the difficulty of truly seeing, these poems reconfigure the human condition in unusual light through their mastery of tone and condensed brilliance.