Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods: Poetry in the Shadow of the Past

by William Logan

In Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods, William Logan, the noted and often controversial critic of contemporary poetry, returns to some of the greatest poems in English literature. He reveals what we may not have seen before and what his critical eye can do with what he loves. In essays that pair different poems--"Ozymandias," "On First Looking Into Chapman's Homer," "In a Station of the Metro," "The Red Wheelbarrow," "After great pain, a formal feeling comes," and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening," among others--Logan reconciles history and poetry to provide new ways of reading poets ranging from Shakespeare and Shelley to Lowell and Heaney.



In these striking essays, Logan presents the poetry of the past through the lens of the past, attempting to bring poems back to the world in which they were made. Logan's criticism is informed by the material culture of that world, whether postal deliveries in Regency London, the M�tro lighting in 1911 Paris, or the wheelbarrows used in 1923. Deeper knowledge of the poet's daily existence lets us read old poems afresh, providing a new way of understanding poems now encrusted with commentary. Logan shows that criticism cannot just root blindly among the words of the poem but must live partly in a lost world, in the shadow of the poet's life and the shadow of the age.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Essays, Literary Criticism, History

398 pages, ebook

Published June 5, 2018

About the author

William Logan is Alumni/ae Professor at the University of Florida. He is the author of seven books of criticism, most recently Dickinson’s Nerves, Frost’s Woods: Poetry in the Shadow of the Past (Columbia, 2018), and eleven books of poetry. Logan has won the inaugural Randall Jarrell Award in Poetry Criticism, the Aiken Taylor Award in Modern American Poetry, the Staige D. Blackford Prize for Nonfiction, the Allen Tate Prize, and the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism.

Reviews

[Andrea Rothman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was kind of mesmerizing to read some of my favorite poems through the lens of the past. I felt that I was truly understanding them for the first time, witnessing how they came to be. For anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of Frost's "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening" and Dickinson's "After Great Pain, A Formal Feeling Comes," this is definitely a worthwhile book.

[Karoliina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a collection of essays that each discuss two poems side by side. The poems are linked by a topic (such as skunks or horses) and Logan then discusses both poems from a historical perspective. The author calls his historical approach 'reading the margins', and to me this was like reading the footnotes of an anthology, except the footnotes are fully developed essays in their own right. I really enjoyed that the focus of the essays was literary history and I learned a lot about poems I've read before a thousand times, such us Shelley's Ozymandias and Frost's The Draft Horse. Even though I've had to sit through a couple of lectures about both before, I never learnt much about their historical context. Therefore Logan's analysis was refreshing and made me connect with the familiar lines in new ways.

That said, I was mostly drawn to the essays that were about poems I was already familiar with, whereas the essays that covered poems I hadn't read before didn't capture me in the same way. The author doesn't waste much time on trying to convice the reader to care about the poems before launching into the analysis. The collection also assumes that you already have some background knowledge in basic literary theory and therefore might not be very accessible if this is your first introduction to literary criticism. That's not to say that the writing is overly dense or esoteric, though. I only have a smattering of literature courses behind me and could follow Logan's analysis with ease and found it interesting.

[Joelle Egan · Rating 4 out of 5]

For the uninitiated, poetry can sometimes be daunting and intimidating. Many times the reader is left in the dark regarding the references and allusions, structures and significance of the verse. In Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods, William Logan provides some excellent guidance for the reader who seeks to better understand some of English Literature's most famous poems. His collection of essays juxtapose two contemporaries from various points in the evolution of poetry, with extensive information about the historical, social and cultural contexts in which they were written. Logan even presents images of original copies and includes draft versions to illustrate the process of creation and refinement. The weather and influential major events of the time are included as well. This book would be a useful guide for university-level students with a basic literature background, but would also appeal to anyone seeking to gain a clarified appreciation for this wonderful art form.

[J.D. DeHart · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Logan explores poetry and classical voices through a variety of essays that treat on well-respected works. I would gladly pair this book with reading material for a literature and language course. The writing is grounded in analysis and research, but is also accessible. This was a quality read on the world of verse.

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods: Poetry in the Shadow of the Past (Hardcover) by William Logan is the examination of several well-known poems. Logan is Alumni/ae Professor and Distinguished Teaching Scholar at the University of Florida. He is the author of The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin (2005); Our Savage Art: Poetry and the Civil Tongue (2009); and Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure: The Dirty Art of Poetry (2012), all from Columbia University Press, as well as eleven books of poems and other works of criticism.

Poetry is a subject I recently picked up without much background on the subject except for an undergraduate English Literature class. I enjoy classic poetry as well as review modern poetry. I will admit that sometimes poetry does not make sense, for example, Gertrude Stein's Tiny Buttons is still a mystery to me, and it took over a year before I could get a grasp on Eric Linsker's La Far.

Logan puts the poems in his essays into historical context. This is something I can appreciate as my undergraduate degree is in history. The compositions start right off with a double dose of history with Shelley's "Ozymandias." History is presented in both the Egyptian king and in Shelley's life. The poem is well dissected and compared to Horace Smith's of the same title. Logan, in his essays, examines the title poem to another of a similar time or subject. Ezra Pound's "In A Station of the Metro" is discussed. Pound is another poet that I have trouble with and the information presented is beneficial. The complexity of Pound's condensed work paired with William Carlos Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow. It seems like a simple poem is rather complex when analyzed. Logan goes deep into the poem. The wheelbarrow and chickens belonged to Thaddeus Marshall and old African-American that Williams knew growing up. Logan includes census information, a map, and pictures of Marshal and his house.

Shakespeare is compared to Shakespeare. Dickinson, Lowell, Heaney, Wilbur, Longfellow, and Frost, twice are included.  The placement of an editor's comma changed the meaning of the original line "The woods are lovely, dark and deep" to "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep."  The comma creates a real change to the meaning.  Here too, the poem goes much deeper than a simple reflection on a winter's night

Logan's essays provide insight into the poems and to their context in time.  Poetry does not stand alone.  It has a history and its own roots in time and place.  I received a review copy of this book but was unable to read the text in the electronic copy.  I was taken in by the premise so much that I bought a hardback copy to review.  I was not disappointed. Very informative and enlightening. 

[Margaryta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Logan's "Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods" is an impressive feat both in terms of research and as an exercise in patience. Proposing readings of well-known poems by well-known poets that considers the historical context that surrounds these works, a kind of "reading the margins", as Logan calls them, this is a very attentive and impressively written and researched collection of essays. Being familiar with the work of the poets discussed in the book, especially the specific poems that are examined - and I mean familiar as in that you have read a significant amount of their work as well as literature and theory about it - was, in my opinion, fundamental in order to fully appreciate Logan's work. I only read the first few chapters with relative attention and engagement before I began to get off track and skim, at first every couple of pages, then flipping through whole chunks of a chapter. Having had no previous exposure to the work of Percy Shelley, Pound, Frost, or Dickinson, nor any of the other poets in the collection, really prevented me from fully appreciating Logan's writing. It also prevented me from caring so much about all the more specific biographical information he presented to the reader. Therefore my opinion of the collection is rather slanted, although I believe that a more insightful reader will not only be able to appreciate Logan's writing and research skills as I did, but will also take much more away from the content itself.

[Michelle Kidwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods
Poetry in the Shadow of the Past
by William Logan
Columbia University Press

Nonfiction (Adult) , Poetry
Pub Date 19 Jun 2018


I am reviewing a copy of Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods through Columbia University Press and Netgalley:



This book contains striking essays about the poetry of the past attempting to bring the poems back into the world which they came from. William Logan's criticism is formed in the various times and places the selected poems were created from Regency London to Metro Lightning.




Understanding about the time each poet lives in gives us a fresh and new understanding of the poem now encrusted with commentary. The author shows that criticism can not be given by only understanding the words of the poem but also the time which the poet lived in.

I give Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods four out of five stars!

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is honestly not a bad book and loads of research have gone into it. I have a degree in English Literature and have worked through many of the poems already, with some being among my all-time favourites. I was really excited about the book because I do enjoy “footnotes” and a good historical recount to put literary works into perspective.

That being said, there is a lot of information I deem unnecessary. I have struggled to finish the book as some sections seemed to go on for far too long about irrelevant details that neither helped understanding the poem nor added any meaning to it.

If I have to highlight one of the chapters it will be no doubt Ezra Pound’s as I did find some details very enriching to the interpretation.

Lastly, you don’t necessarily need to know the poems beforehand. I did not know some and could enjoy the chapters regardless.