A New Theory for American Poetry : Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination / Angus FLETCHER.
2022
PS303 ǂb F58 2004eb
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Title
A New Theory for American Poetry : Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination / Angus FLETCHER.
Author
FLETCHER, Angus, author.
ISBN
9780674037014
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2022]
Copyright
©2004
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (336 p.)
Item Number
10.4159/9780674037014 doi
Call Number
PS303 ǂb F58 2004eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
811.009
Summary
"Amid gloomy forecasts of the decline of the humanities and the death of poetry, Angus Fletcher, a wise and dedicated literary voice, sounds a note of powerful, tempered optimism. He lays out a fresh approach to American poetry at large, the first in several decades, expounding a defense of the art that will resonate well into the new century. Breaking with the tired habit of treating American poets as the happy or rebellious children of European romanticism, Fletcher uncovers a distinct lineage for American poetry. His point of departure is the fascinating English writer, John Clare; he then centers on the radically American vision expressed by Emerson and Walt Whitman. With Whitman this book insists that "the whole theory and nature of poetry" needs inspiration from science if it is to achieve a truly democratic vista. Drawing variously on Complexity Theory and on fundamentals of art and grammar, Fletcher argues that our finest poetry is nature-based, environmentally shaped, and descriptive in aim, enabling poets like John Ashbery and other contemporaries to discover a mysterious pragmatism. Intense, resonant, and deeply literary, this account of an American poetics shows how today's consumerist and conformist culture subverts the imagination of a free people. While centering on American vision, the argument extends our horizon, striking a blow against all economically sanctioned attacks upon the finer, stronger human capacities. Poetry, the author maintains, is central to any coherent vision of life. "
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Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 31. Jan 2022)
In
HUP eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013 (Canada)
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
Harvard University Press eBook Package Backlist 2000-2013
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Table of Contents
Frontmatter
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1 Clare's Horizon
2 The Argument of Form
3 Description
4 Ashbery's Clare
5 Diurnal Knowledge
6 The Whitman Phrase
7 The Environment-Poem
8 Waves and the Troping of Poetic Form
9 Middle Voice
10 Ashbery and the Becoming of the Poem
11 Meditating Chaos and Complexity
12 "The Long Amazing and Unprecedented Way"
13 Coherence
14 Precious Idiosyncrasy: An Epilogue
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
Contents
Introduction
1 Clare's Horizon
2 The Argument of Form
3 Description
4 Ashbery's Clare
5 Diurnal Knowledge
6 The Whitman Phrase
7 The Environment-Poem
8 Waves and the Troping of Poetic Form
9 Middle Voice
10 Ashbery and the Becoming of the Poem
11 Meditating Chaos and Complexity
12 "The Long Amazing and Unprecedented Way"
13 Coherence
14 Precious Idiosyncrasy: An Epilogue
Notes
Index