SPARRING WITH THE SUN
Poets and the Ways We Think about Poetry in the Late Days of Modernism
In this lively book presenting six of the most influential poets of the late
twentieth century, Jan Schreiber argues convincingly that the strongest and most
lasting poems were written in meter, rather than the free verse that dominated
the scene for much of the period.
With fresh looks at the work of Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, Howard Nemerov,
Anthony Hecht, W. D. Snodgrass, and Richard Wilbur, these essays give readers
new insights into the strategies poets use to fuse sound and sense together in
memorable ways. Later chapters take a close look at the work of additional poets
considered important by influential editors and critics, and offer a
re-evaluation of some reputations that have suffered from neglect in recent
years.
Enlivened with plentiful quotations and supported by close and perceptive
readings, this book is an invaluable guide through the challenging forest of
twentieth-century poetry in the postwar period. A model of evaluative criticism,
it also offers illuminating essays on artistic judgment and on the functions of
poetry in a diverse, contentious, and changing society.
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“[T]he thoughtful presentation and the knowledgeable analyses are rewarding to
read. Schreiber’s style is lucid and pleasing to the ear. It also avoids being
strident, a great virtue in a field, poetic criticism, where stridency is often
encountered.”
– Jim Wilson, on the web site
Shaping Words
“Schreiber's
brilliant critical take on these poets – his eloquent love of the best, and his
outspoken criticism for those he thinks overrated – make this an excellent
primer for people like me, who want to know more and understand more about
modern poetry. Through his fine parsing of these poets’ work, I caught a glimmer
of how exciting poetry can be.”
– Susan Quinn, Amazon review