Stephen Booth writes, “Great works of art are daredevils. They flirt with disasters and, at the same time, they let you know they are married forever to particular, reliable order and purpose. They are, and seem often to work hard at being, always on the point of one or another kind of . . . . Continue Reading »
Among the cruxes of Milton’s Lycidas is the image of the “two-handed” engine that the apostle Peter threatens against the false shepherds of the seventeenth-century church. Milton writes, “Besides what the grim Woolf with privy paw Daily devours apace, and nothing sed, . . . . Continue Reading »
Bakhtin ( Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (Theory & History of Literature) ) famously characterized Dostoevsky’s fiction as “polyphonic.” His novels were characterized by multiple voices that were never merged into the author’s single voice. As Bakhtin . . . . Continue Reading »
From an interview with Vera Pavlova: “Prose is addition in line, poetry is multiplication in column.” . . . . Continue Reading »
In Natural Supernaturalism: Tradition and Revolution in Romantic Literature , M. H. Abrams notes the influence of the Bible on Romanticism: “A conspicuous Romantic tendency, after the rationalism and decorum of the Enlightenment, was a reversion to the stark drama and suprarational mysteries . . . . Continue Reading »
Ralph Smith sent me a copy of John Gross’ Commentary review of James Shapiro’s Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare? Shapiro argues that the search for an alternative author to Will Shakespeare arises from the clash between the sublime poetic achievement and the humdrum, even rather . . . . Continue Reading »
Novels arise with secularism. Citing Lukacs, Rowan William says that novels appear “when it is no longer possible to plot the significance of human lives against the unquestioned backdrop of what is agreed to be the one universal narrative,” which leads writers “to create . . . . Continue Reading »
In the December 2009 issue of Poetry , DH Tracy explores the difficulty that contemporary poets have in combining moral passion with aesthetic/sensual interest. Quotations from poems by Frederick Seidel and Robert Hass lead to this observation: “sensuous experiences run up and down them . . . . Continue Reading »
A Tale of Two Cities fits snugly into several contexts. It is an historical novel about a major event of the (then) recent past. Published in 1859, the seventieth anniversary of the beginning of the fall of the Bastille, it depicted an event that was still a touchstone of history and . . . . Continue Reading »
Another student, Jesse Sumpter, summarized an article by one Kathryn Walls on the axe in Sir Gawain. She connects the axe with the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3: The axe is already laid at the foot of the trees. That fits the setting of the Green Knight’s first appearance . . . . Continue Reading »
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