The life of words : etymology and modern poetry / David-Antoine Williams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Williams, David-Antoine, 1978- author.

Contributor:

J. Bertram Lippincott Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

English poetry--21st century--History and criticism.

English language--Etymology.

English language.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xii, 299 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020.

Summary:

For centuries, investigations into the origins of words were entwined with investigations into the origins of humanity and the cosmos. With the development of modern etymological practice in the nineteenth century, however, many cherished etymologies were shown to be impossible, and the very idea of original 'true meaning' asserted in the etymology of 'etymology' declared a fallacy. Structural linguistics later held that the relationship between sound and meaning in language was 'arbitrary', or 'unmotivated', a truth that has survived with small modification until today. On the other hand, the relationship between sound and meaning has been a prime motivator of poems, at all times throughout history. 0The Life of Words studies a selection of poets inhabiting our 'Age of the Arbitrary', whose auditory-semantic sensibilities have additionally been motivated by a historical sense of the language, troubled as it may be by claims and counterclaims of 'fallacy' or 'true meaning'. Arguing that etymology activates peculiar kinds of epistemology in the modern poem, the book pays extended attention to poems by G.M. Hopkins, Anne Waldman, Ciaran Carson, and Anne Carson, and to the collected works of Geoffrey Hill, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, R.F. Langley, and J.H. Prynne.

Contents:

1 Origins p. 14

The Meaning of Etymology p. 14

Of Apples and Origins p. 20

Language as Life p. 32

Creating Language p. 39

Philosophical Etymology p. 46

2 Adaptations in the Age of the Arbitrary p. 56

Etymology after Saussure p. 56

Poetic Etymology: Irony and Belief p. 70

Seven Types of Etymological Ambiguity p. 79

The Etymological End of the Line p. 87

3 Etymological Recirculation in Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne p. 100

Word-Hoard: Seamus Heaney's Heritage p. 100

Going with the Grain: R. F. Langley's Semiosis of the Forest p. 112

Atomic Etymology: J. H. Prynne's Kazoo Dreamboats p. 133

4 Geoffrey Hill's Etymological Crux p. 150

Of Truth and Fable p. 150

The Fall p. 159

Our Métier p. 170

Error Is p. 176

God's Grammar p. 187

Living Powers p. 192

His Dark Materials p. 200

5 Paul Muldoon's Etymological Thread p. 207

Clues p. 207

Fusion and Confusion p. 215

The Muldoonian 'Or' p. 223

Nomen est Omen p. 231

Poetymullogy p. 243

Muldoon's Soundprint p. 249

Afterword: '... and it ends right here' p. 256.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the J. Bertram Lippincott Library Fund.

Other Format:

Electronic version: Williams, David-Antoine, 1978- Life of words.

ISBN:

9780198812470

0198812477

OCLC:

1125382566

Publisher Number:

99984948012