This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.

20 used & new from $0.95
See All Buying Options

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Tell a Friend
The Poetry of Life: And the Life of Poetry
 
 
Are You an Author or Publisher?
Find out how to publish your own Kindle Books
 
  

The Poetry of Life: And the Life of Poetry (Paperback)

by David Mason (Author) "I owe my existence to the Japanese Imperial Army..." (more)
Key Phrases: best poems, New York, Dana Gioia, Anne Sexton (more...)
4.8 out of 5 stars  (4 customer reviews)


Available from these sellers.


20 used & new available from $0.95

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Arrivals

Arrivals by David Mason

5.0 out of 5 stars (3) 
Ludlow

Ludlow by DAVID MASON

5.0 out of 5 stars (5)  $12.89
Explore similar items : Books (2)

Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Here, with a particular affinity to the north countries and their descendants, poet Mason (coeditor of Rebel Angels: 26 Poets on the New Formalism) presents essays about English-language poets, including Auden, Heaney, Frost (who he reminds us is of Scottish stock), Burns, Louis Simpson, Anne Sexton, and a variety of perhaps lesser-known poets working in the second half of the 20th century. He also very effectively covers a host of contemporary Irish poets (including the wonderful Eil?an N! Chuillean in). He really attempts to be even-handed when discussing the complexities of the American landscape but is oddly less convincing when he shifts to his own aesthetic and makes choices to represent that landscape. A book like this is interesting because of who it does not note, and Mason's vision seems limited to established generations (the young need not apply). Nonetheless, he is excellent on poetry in the broadest sense, offering clear and insightful comments with genuine interest and style. Without being divisive or shrill, he communicates a passion for poetry. Recommended for all libraries.
-Scott Hightower, Fordham Univ., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Mason acknowledges his indebtedness to fellow poet-critic Dana Gioia's splendid Can Poetry Matter? (1992) right off the bat, and to everyone's benefit, he repays the debt in kind. His criticism, like Gioia's, is readable, comprehensible, and far more appreciative than de(con)structive. He is not nearly so much a content analyst as he is an aesthetic one. He likes poetry that sounds good in terms of rhythm, rhyme, sonority, consonance and assonance, and onomatopoeia; and he likes all those techniques to serve verbal meaning, denotative and connotative. In short, he likes poetry to be distinguishable from prose, and when he complains, he complains about dullness of language more than about dubious ideas. Particular objects of his appreciation in these essays include Robert Fagles' translation of the Iliad, the influence of Robert Frost on Seamus Heaney, the astonishingly fecund phenomenon of twentieth-century Irish poetry, the New Formalism in American poetry, and, in three marvelous critiques, W. H. Auden's work. Poetry criticism doesn't get any better than this. Ray Olson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details
  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Story Line Press (December 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1885266804
  • ISBN-13: 978-1885266804
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #804,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
    (Publishers and authors: Improve Your Sales)

Inside This Book (learn more)