Broken Ground: Poetry and the Demon of History

by William Logan

In Broken Ground, William Logan explores the works of canonical and contemporary poets, rediscovering the lushness of imagination and depth of feeling that distinguish poetry as a literary art. The book includes long essays on Emily Dickinson's envelopes, Ezra Pound's wrestling with Chinese, Robert Frost's letters, Philip Larkin's train station, and Mrs. Custer's volume of Tennyson, each teasing out the depths beneath the surface of the page.

Broken Ground also presents the latest run of Logan's infamous poetry chronicles and reviews, which for twenty-five years have bedeviled American verse. Logan believes that poetry criticism must be both adventurous and forthright--and that no reader should settle for being told that every poet is a genius. Among the poets under review by the "preeminent poet-critic of his generation" and "most hated man in American poetry" are Anne Carson, Jorie Graham, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, Geoffrey Hill, Louise Glück, John Berryman, Marianne Moore, Frederick Seidel, Les Murray, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Johnny Cash, James Franco, and the former archbishop of Canterbury.

Logan's criticism stands on the broken ground of poetry, soaked in history and soiled by it. These essays and reviews work in the deep undercurrents of our poetry, judging the weak and the strong but finding in weakness and strength what endures.

Genres: Poetry

376 pages, Hardcover

Published May 11, 2021

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

[Andrew Kozma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am biased, in that William Logan was one of my teachers.

Still, I love his criticism--and while I do think that knowing how he is in person allows me to see his humor and nuance more in his written words (maybe? he'd probably disagree) I believe his criticism is incisive and always interesting, whether you agree with his opinions or not.

I must admit that I love reading criticism. I love reading the evidence of a person's mind at work. Most of the poets and books Logan talks about I'm not familiar with, but that doesn't matter in terms of understanding or appreciating his insights. The work lives and dies in his reviews, enough evidence given so that you can see his points clearly, even if you're pretty sure you'd take a different tack reading the work on your own.

If you like criticism that doesn't hold back (in either praise or critique), then you will enjoy this book.

[Puppybhai · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got an arc from Netgalley in the exchange for an honest review.

This was not my cup of tea but I still finished this book. Sadly I'm not the right demographic reader of this type of book. So I can not comment much.

But thank you net galley for the arc of this book. 😊

[J Earl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Broken Ground: Poetry and the Demon of History by William Logan collects some of his critical writings and offers a nice glimpse into both his strengths and weaknesses as a critic. Even if you find him over the top and largely pompous, as I do, you will still be able to learn a lot, though maybe not always specifically what he would wish.

You have to come to this collection with an understanding that his view of what passes for good poetry is very narrow. I don't simply mean that he expects a certain level of skill or creativity, though that is part of it and no doubt what he believes his opinions to be. But more important is his disdain for the vast majority of anything other than very formal, conservative poetry (speaking of form here, not politics). This applies to his appraisal of others as well as the poetry he writes himself. If you only value that same narrow portion of poetic expression, you may well agree with much of his criticism.

Even with his inflated sense of self he offers a reader a lot of insight into the ways in which a poem can be more or less effective. Paying attention to the elements he looks at within a poet's work helps us to also look at those same things. We may disagree with him about how well they succeed, especially if it is something outside his narrow preference, but looking at a poem through the eyes of a poet is useful for those of us who are not poets (in the sense of verse) even if we are trained in literature but mostly prose, which he views with disdains except, maybe, in "small doses."

One thing I noticed is that when I went back and reread some of what he was so negative about I both understand it better (thanks to him) and appreciated it more (in spite of him). So if you enjoy poetry but don't enjoy wrestling with it at times, then you might not enjoy this book, even though it is entertaining. I can't say I was laughing with him but I don't think he much cares that I was laughing at him. If you enjoy reading poetry and find pleasure in word choice and the sound of some words when strung together, you will likely find a lot to appreciate about this book, no matter what your opinion of his opinions are.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[كيكه الوزير]

If I had all the time in the world, I would enjoy reading this. I'm not an expert in poetry, and would appreciate the opportunity to sit down and actually slowly go through this with the original material being critiqued. But because I am borrowing this book from NetGalley, who I thank sincerely, I simply don't have the time to sit down and properly enjoy a book of this magnitude. I highly recommend this book to lovers of poetry. I only read about 20% but the writing is superb and the limited experience I had with it was wonderful. I really hope to cross it again in the future.

*NetGalley allows you to renew a book after the first 55 days, until the book is 'archived'. However, I simply don't have the time management skills needed to enjoy this without stressing about being on a time limit. Also I think a lot of my enjoyment is lost in reading this digitally. This is an academic work that deserves to be held in the hand and marked mercilessly with a pen.