A new theory for American poetry : democracy, the environment, and the future of imagination / Angus Fletcher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fletcher, Angus, 1930-2016.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Influence.

Whitman, Walt.

Clare, John, 1793-1864--Influence.

Clare, John.

Ashbery, John, 1927-2017--Influence.

Ashbery, John.

American poetry--History and criticism--Theory, etc.

American poetry.

Environmental protection in literature.

Democracy in literature.

Ecology in literature.

Nature in literature.

Imagination.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 316 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Press, 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Rather than treating American poets as the happy or rebellious children of European romanticism, Fletcher uncovers a distinct lineage for American poetry. His point of departure is the English writer John Clare - he then centres on the radically American vision expressed by Emerson and Walt Whitman.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

Introduction

1 Clare’s Horizon

2 The Argument of Form

3 Description

4 Ashbery’s Clare

5 Diurnal Knowledge

6 The Whitman Phrase

7 The Environment-Poem

8 Waves and the Troping of Poetic Form

9 Middle Voice

10 Ashbery and the Becoming of the Poem

11 Meditating Chaos and Complexity

12 “The Long Amazing and Unprecedented Way”

13 Coherence

14 Precious Idiosyncrasy: An Epilogue

Notes

Index

Notes:

Formerly CIP.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-310) and index.

ISBN:

9780674037014

0674037014

OCLC:

923112663