James Merrill : postmodern magus : myth and poetics / Evans Lansing Smith.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Smith, Evans Lansing, 1950-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Merrill, James, 1926-1995--Criticism and interpretation.

Merrill, James.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (277 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : University of Iowa Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this meticulously researched, carefully argued work, Evans Lansing Smith argues that the nekyia, the circular Homeric narrative describing the descent into the underworld and reemergence in the same or similar place, confers shape and significance upon the entirety of James Merrill's poetry. Smith illustrates how pervasive this myth is in Merrill's work, not just in The Changing Light at Sandover, where it naturally serves as the central premise of the entire trilogy, but in all of the poet's books, before and after that central text.

Contents:

contents; Overture; 1. First Poems; 2. The Country of a Thousand Years of Peace; 3. Water Street; 4. Nights and Days; 5. The Fire Screen; 6. Braving the Elements; 7. Divine Comedies; 8. The Book of Ephraim; 9. The Changing Light at Sandover; 10. The Inner Room; 11. Late Settings and A Scattering of Salts; Coda; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-261) and index.

ISBN:

9781587297649

1587297647

OCLC:

646888324