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Library | Material Type | Call Number | Status | Item Holds |
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Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library | Book | PN1031 .P34 2008 | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Summary
Summary
Poetry doesn't matter to most people, observes Jay Parini at the opening of this book. But, undeterred, he commences a deeply felt meditation on poetry, its language and meaning, and its power to open minds and transform lives. By the end of the book, Parini has recovered a truth often obscured by our clamorous culture: without poetry, we live only partially, not fully conscious of the possibilities that life affords. Poetry indeed matters.
A gifted poet and acclaimed teacher, Parini begins by looking at defenses of poetry written over the centuries. He ponders Aristotle, Horace, and Longinus, and moves on through Sidney, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Eliot, Frost, Stevens, and others. Parini examines the importance of poetic voice and the mysteries of metaphor. He argues that a poet's originality depends on a deep understanding of the traditions of political poetry, nature poetry, and religious poetry. Writing with a casual grace, Parini avoids jargon and makes his case in concise, direct terms: the mind of the poet supplies a light to the minds of others, kindling their imaginations, helping them to live their lives. The author's love of poetry suffuses this insightful book--a volume for all readers interested in a fresh introduction to the art that lies at the center of Western civilization.Reviews (1)
Choice Review
Following a review of remarks made by some of poetry's most passionate defenders--notably, Horace, Longinus, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Emerson, Whitman, and Stevens--Parini (Middlebury College) argues that poetry matters because of its precise and powerful uses of language, its embodiment of distinctive individual voices, its profound immersion in metaphorical thinking, its innovative adaptations of poetic traditions and formal conventions, and its ability to inspire an awareness of politics, nature, and the spiritual world. In his preface Parini laments most people's utter indifference to poetry: they "don't write it, don't read it, and don't have any idea why anybody would spend valuable time doing such a thing." Unfortunately, this book is not likely to rectify matters by attracting the notice of "most people." And if they did discover the book, they would find it remote, exotic, officious. Most people today are intrigued not by the virtues of verse but by watching sports on big-screen television sets, downloading tunes on computers, surfing the blogosphere, sending text messages or chattering on mobile phones, or listening to bloviators on radio and cable "news" programs. Despite this sorry situation, Why Poetry Matters will strike literati as lucid, informative, even inspirational. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers, all levels. D. D. Kummings University of Wisconsin--Parkside
Table of Contents
| Preface | p. ix |
| 1 Defending Poetry | p. 1 |
| 2 Language | p. 23 |
| 3 The Personal Voice | p. 43 |
| 4 The Way of Metaphor | p. 65 |
| 5 Tradition and Originality | p. 79 |
| 6 Form and Freedom | p. 99 |
| 7 The Politics of Poetry | p. 115 |
| 8 A Natural World | p. 133 |
| 9 Divine Parameters: A Reading of Four Quartets | p. 155 |
| Conclusion | p. 177 |
| Notes | p. 183 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 190 |
| Index | p. 191 |
| Credits | p. 205 |