The Poet's Work: 29 Poets on the Origins and Practice of Their Art

by Reginald Gibbons (Editor)

"This anthology brings together essays by 20th-century poets on their own some concern themselves with its deep sources and ultimate justifications; others deal with technique, controversies among schools, the experience behind particular poems. The great Modernists of most countries are presented here—Paul Valéry, Federico García Lorca, Boris Pasternak, Fernando Pessoa, Eugenio Montale, Wallace Stevens—as are a range of younger, less eminent figures from the English-speaking Seamus Heaney, Denise Levertov, Wendell Berry. . . . The reader will find here a lively debate over the individualistic and the communal ends served by poetry, and over other issues that divide inspiration and craft; the use or the condemnation of science; traditional and 'organic' form."—Alan Williamson, New York Times Book Review

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Crafts, Nonfiction, Anthologies

319 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Reginald Gibbons is an American poet, fiction writer, translator, and literary critic. He is the Frances Hooper Professor of Arts and Humanities, Emeritus, at Northwestern University. Gibbons has published numerous books, including 11 volumes of poems, translations of poetry from ancient Greek, Spanish, and co-translations from Russian. He has published short stories, essays, reviews and art in journals and magazines, has held Guggenheim Foundation and NEA fellowships in poetry and a research fellowship from the Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington D.C. For his novel, Sweetbitter, he won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award; for his book of poems, Maybe It Was So, he won the Carl Sandburg Prize. He has won the Folger Shakespeare Library's O. B. Hardison, Jr. Poetry Prize, and other honors, among them the inclusion of his work in Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies. His book Creatures of a Day was a Finalist for the 2008 National Book Award for poetry. His other poetry books include Sparrow: New and Selected Poems (Balcones Prize), Last Lake and Renditions, his eleventh book of poems. Two books of poems are forthcoming: Three Poems in 2024 and Young Woman With a Cane in 2025. He has also published two collections of very short fiction, Five Pears or Peaches and An Orchard in the Street.

Reviews

[Harper Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating collection of prose by poets writing about their art. The poets are great poets: Milosz, Pessoa, Mandelstam, Pasternak, Lorca, Stevens, Marianne Moore, Machado, Auden, Delmore Schwartz, Dylan Thomas, W.C. Williams, Levertov, Heaney and many more. In this wide-ranging sampler, you find yourself in the company of the greatest writers on poetry.

[Jee Koh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finally made my way to the end of The Poet's Work: 29 Masters of 20th Century Poetry on the Origins and Practice of their Art, edited by Reginald Gibbons. Some pieces are fully developed essays, some are collections of working notes or of aphorisms, a few are interviews, and a few more are poems. Most I forgot the moment I finished reading them. Except for Karl Shapiro's polemical piece "What Is Not Poetry?" Americans writing on poetry bore me. Too often they reduce intuitions to theories. Australian A. D. Hope does the same in his systematic exposition of "The Three Faces of Love." The Spanish are much more readable. Lorca on the duende. Antonio Machado on the sparing use of imagery in intense lyrical poetry.

Of those writing in English, Seamus Heaney, in his essay "Feelings into Words" comes the closest to evoking the spiritual in poetry. His figures--the digger, the diviner, the Tollund Man--are originally and finally mysterious. He is everywhere alert to how poets rationalize what begins as a lump in the throat. He gives me faith, instead of doctrines, process instead of procedures. Unlike Lorca's chaotic proliferation, however, this faith has its own discipline. Heaney writes, "I like the paraphrasable extensions of a poem to be as protean as possible, and yet I like its elements to be as firm as possible." Proteus held against the rock.

[Eve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some insightful reading, but some of them are lost on me with their insistence on being flamboyant with simple statements. I rate this a four instead of a three because the works that I could read were reflective and did make me think on my own terrible poetry, while the others I got so little meaning from that I can't even remember what they were about. Also, if I rated this a three my professor would ask why and I don't want to talk in class ever.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book years (decades) ago because I loved the title. I still love the title. I want to know about how poets do what they do. Why they do what they do. There were sections in this book that excited me and made me type portions to friends in email. There were also sections that didn't speak to me at all. I suspect I am a bit set in my ways. There are entries in this book from about 1910 to 1980. At the start of this year I wasn't familiar with the work of many poets. At the end of this year, I realize I am familiar with many in this book, and have many of the rest on my shelves to read. I do also prefer e-books and this book is only available in physical form.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m very glad I read this book. There are gems in here. The essay by Seamus Heaney stands out. There were good essays on technique and wonder, and line breaks and other poets. I found the collection not uneven - but uneven for me. That is to say that not all of the essays spoke to me. I learned a lot from this collection about writing and listening and reading.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

lots of good stuff but forgettable stuff as well.