A hundred Himalayas : essays on life and literature / Sydney Lea.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lea, Sydney, 1942-

Series:

Writers on writing (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Writers on writing.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

xiii, 123 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2012]

Summary:

In A Hundred Himalayas, Sydney Lea has collected a group of essays written over 30 years, representing what he refers to as the persistence of preoccupations and the absence of theory-a group of speculations, each one a single Himalaya, together a great elevation achieved in small increments. His musings on his own "favored genius," Robert Frost, his own approach to literary criticism, imagination, the American nature essay, rural life, the process of writing a poem, and fitting writing into everyday life all combine to create a picture of the things that interest Lea. "If there is grandeur at all in this volume," he says, "then, it must come in small increments." All of his small increments of gentle and insightful writing combine to create a collection that is indeed, grand. Book jacket.

Contents:

I Abecedarium

Ars poetica 3

Either/and/Or; or, You're Not as Dumb as You Think 7

"Fathomless": How a Poem Happens 17

"... not a state of mind" 21

"Only connect..." 24

II Making a Case

"I Recognize Thy Glory": The American Nature Essay 29

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy: A Poet's Awkwardness 38

Making a Case; or, "Where Are You Coming From?" 46

The Knife, a Parable 59

III Sublime to Rigamarole

Fact, Dream, and Labor: Robert Frost and the New England Attitude 67

On Keats's "To Autumn" 79

Wordsworth and His "Michael": The Pastor Passes 83

From Sublime to Rigamarole: Relations of Frost to Wordsworth 97.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780472071883

0472071882

9780472051885

0472051881

OCLC:

781556032