A Test of Poetry (The Wesleyan Centennial Edition of the Complete Critical Writings of Louis Zukofsky) [Paperback]

Louis Zukofsky (Author), Robert Creeley (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: The Wesleyan Centennial Edition of the Complete Critical Writings of Louis Zukofsky | Publication Date: May 26, 2000

By juxtaposing several translations of the same passage from Homer; an elegy from Ovid and lines from Herrick that read like an adaptation of Ovid; or a 15th-century poem about a rooster and a contemporary poem about white chickens, Louis Zukofsky has established a means for judging the values of poetic writing.

A wonderful education for the fledgling poet, this handbook, first published in 1948, is the best elucidation of Zukofsky's "objectivist" premises for recognizing value in specific instances of poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wonderfully strange and covertly influential . . . the first volume of an essential series." --Publishers Weekly

"A Test of Poetry has changed over the years into something much more than a mere testing for information. It has become a signature examination, and expression, of the structure of meaning -- as intertextuality, as self. Confronting the test/text of his own life, Zukofsky passes with honors." --American Book Review

Review

"A necessary book for anyone interested in poetry." (Rosmarie Waldrop )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Wesleyan (May 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819564028
• ISBN-13: 978-0819564023
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,598,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Give It All The Stars In The Sky, December 21, 2000

By 

David B. Erickson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Test of Poetry (The Wesleyan Centennial Edition of the Complete Critical Writings of Louis Zukofsky) (Paperback)

Poor poetry. Either it smothers under tons of academic pretension, or it is retailed as pop entertainment in poetry slams. It seems sometimes that Robert Pinsky is the only one with a good handle on the popular appeal of this emotional/intellectual art. But I bet you Pinsky has this book and refers to it regularly. This is the most hard-headed, economical poetry criticism, completely free of cant and pretension; equally free of stylishness. Zukovsky gives us, as Donald Barthelme once wrote, "the red meat on the rug." The form of the book is disarmingly simple: Selected quotes, side by side, with the occasional footnote. Zukovsky lets you figure things out yourself, and when you refer to his notes, you are nearly always rewarded with the notion that you and he are at least on the same planet when it comes to deciding what is good and what is not so good about poetry. Some of the selections in Middle English or Scots dialect are tough going, but you soon discover that it is as much sound as meaning that is important. In any event, there are plentiful and helpful footnotes. If you're lucky, you've never read any poetry criticism and can leap into this book unbiased and unafraid. If (like your reviewer) you had to read a lot of it in college, you'll feel positively liberated.

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyably challenging taste-builder, December 30, 2011

By 

moose/squirrel (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Test of Poetry (The Wesleyan Centennial Edition of the Complete Critical Writings of Louis Zukofsky) (Paperback)

I agree completely with the previous reviewer. If I'd known about this book during the years I spent teaching poetry to college freshmen, I'd have adopted some of Zukofsky's gut-level approach. Throw away your preconceptions indeed! Zukofsky encourages you - no, forces you - to decide for yourself what's great, what's good, and what's not so hot. And why. It is beneficially disorienting to see poems whose titles, authors, and dates are identified only in the index: there's no subtle pressure to like or dislike. Except for Z's limited, lucid commentary, you're on your own!

Zukofsky's "test" is not whether poems live up to some arbitrary set of standards of excellence; it's whether they speak to the reader and how the reader subjectively explains how they do it.

The poems are well selected. Most are unfamiliar, and a few are tough going. Every time I look into this book I find something challenging and new.