A Test of Poetry

by Louis Zukofsky, Robert Creeley

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.

Genres: Poetry, Criticism, Literary Criticism

178 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1981

About the author

Louis Zukofsky was one of the most important second-generation American modernist poets. He was co-founder and primary theorist of the Objectivist group of poets and was to be an important influence on subsequent generations of poets in America and abroad.

Reviews

[Russ · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is divided into 3 parts. The first and 3rd parts have no comments and feature various poems some good some not so good. By your reading and listening you are encouraged to mark up your copy to better understand what is good and what is bad.I use this book as a reference and always refer back to it for my own edification. The middle Zukofsky adds his own personal comments to another group of poems.
One of the best things about this book is it explores all genre of poetics.

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great "study" book. He pits translations against one another, the reader decides which one they like, and then he explains which one is better, and more importantly, WHY.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm frustrated by the index.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Also rereading. Looks like I'm cycling through my bookshelf again. Not a bad thing.