Lofty Dogmas: Poets on Poetics

by Deborah Brown (Editor), Annie Finch (Editor)

Compiled by three noted poets, this is an eclectic, stimulating, and informed selection of poets' remarks on poetry spanning eras, ethnicities, and aesthetics. The 102 selections from nearly as many poets reach back to the Greeks and Romans, then draw on Chaucer, Shakespeare, Sidney, and Milton, on to Shelley, Keats, Coleridge, and Poe, then Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot, Rilke, and Pound, concluding with many of our contemporaries, including Hall, Clifton, Mackey, Kunitz, and Rukeyser.
The book is divided into three sections. "Musing" concerns issues of inspiration, "Making," issues of craft, from diction to meter to persona and voice, and "Mapping," the role of poetry and the poet. Headnotes at the beginning of each selection provide background information about the poet and commentary on the significance of the selection. There is also a useful appendix with a listing of essays arranged according to more specific topics. As the poets write in their introduction: "This book was intended to deepen readers' understanding of age-old poetic ideas while at the same time pointing out new directions for thinking about poetry, juxtaposing the familiar and the strange, reconfiguring old boundaries, and shaking up stereotypes."

Genres: Poetry

456 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

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Deborah Brown - Mystery & Thrillers, Humor, Chick Lit

Reviews

[Zachary Littrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this book is a journey. I'm afraid retaining much of it in my memory is going to be a tall order, but I can guarantee at least the police chalk outline of the memory will linger for a while, with tape around it with the repeated words, "Poetry."

I think the editors did exactly what they set out to do: I don't know of any other book that so thoroughly collects and compiles the thoughts of poets, past and present, on exactly whatever the hell poetry is, how its made, and why it's important. I have to imagine it's a godsend to any undergrad or grad poetry teacher who needs to find essays to express certain things about the craft. Or even just to poets who want to know there's other working artists out there thinking the same thinks.

That being said, I reckon it might just be a tactical error (that I definitely made) to read this cover to cover. Sure, it was built considering that possibility, but there are stretches where these essays sure will bleed together. It shouldn't be surprising that many poets came to the same conclusions, like that poetry bends language to express things it usually can't, or won't, or shouldn't, or is uninclined to express easily. Or that it's a handy device for speaking truth to power wearing a trenchcoat that looks like gibberish. (Aime Cesaire fooling the Vichy government that his Marxist magazine was just about folklore is delightful). I think it's best enjoyed in drinks.

There's a lot of parts that tickled me, and I'll just highlight by way of buckshot:

* I love the bit for Samuel Taylor Coleridge where his friend described him as "an archangel a little damaged."

* Edgar Allen Poe's erudite, methodical, but passionate philosophy on composition with "The Raven".

* Horace rolls his eyes at bad poets, and also concedes, "we poets//often know what we're aiming at, and often we miss."

* William Blake's depiction of the Printing house in Hell, "In the fifth chamber were Unnam'd forms, which cast the metals into the expanse."

* Gertrude Stein's Patriarchal Poetry and whatever is going on there: "Was it a fish was heard was it a bird was it a cow was stirred was it a third was it a cow was stirred was it a third was it a bird was heard was it a third was it a fish was heard was it a third."

* Naomi Shihab Nye expressing joy at the idea that it's ok and pleasurable to not "get" a poem 100%.

* Derek Walcott quoting Sensenne Descartes: "Ces mamailles actuellement // Pas ka faire l'amour z'autres pour un rien. // (Children nowadays//Don't make love for nothing.)"

(It's worth warning that, per pound, there's very few actual poems in this darn thing, and vastly more jawboning).

I felt a bit like an imposter in the company of these poets talking about what they do -- but after all this time, it's felt like a homecoming to a relationship with poetry, in all senses. Not a perfect marriage boy howdy (this book, like poetry, sometimes leaves the dishes unwashed), but I'm happier for having had this book in my life than being without. What I'm saying is it's a thinker.

(I found this in a little free library in Belfast, Maine. I reckon I'll deposit it in another little free library and it can be someone else's tender albatross)

[Dennis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of essays on poetics. Covers the twentieth century well.

[Kristin Bapst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! One of few books assigned during my collegiate years that I fell in love with - highly reccomended for any poetry-enthusiast or for anyone looking to delve into poetry.