Secular Lyric : The Modernization of the Poem in Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson / John Michael.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Michael, John, 1953- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886--Criticism and interpretation.

Dickinson, Emily.

Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892--Criticism and interpretation.

Whitman, Walt.

Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849--Criticism and interpretation.

Poe, Edgar Allan.

American poetry--19th century--History and criticism.

American poetry.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Fordham University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

Secular Lyric interrogates the distinctively individual ways that Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson transformed classical, romantic, and early modern forms of lyric expression to address the developing conditions of Western modernity, especially the heterogeneity of believers and beliefs in an increasingly secular society. Analyzing historically and formally how these poets inscribed the pressures of the modern crowd in the text of their poems, John Michael shows how the masses appear in these poets’ work as potential readers to be courted and resisted, often at the same time. Unlike their more conventional contemporaries, Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson resist advising, sermonizing or consoling their audiences. They resist most familiar senses of meaning as well. For them, the processes of signification in print rather than the communication of truths become central to poetry, which in turn becomes a characteristic of modern verse in the Western world. Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson, in idiosyncratic but related ways, each disrupt conventional expectations while foregrounding language’s material density, thereby revealing both the potential and the limitations of art in the modern age.

Contents:

Front matter

contents

Introduction. The Secularization of the Lyric: The End of Art, a Revolution in Poetic Language, and the Meaning of the Modern Crowd

chapter 1. Poe’s Posthumanism: Melancholy and the Music of Modernity

chapter 2. Poe and the Origins of Modern Poetry: Tropes of Comparison and the Knowledge of Loss

chapter 3. Whitman’s Poetics and Death: The Poet, Metonymy, and the Crowd

chapter 4. Whitman and Democracy: The “Withness of the World” and the Fakes of Death

chapter 5. The Poet as Lyric Reader

chapter 6. Dickinson’s Dog and the Conclusion

acknowledgments

notes

Index

Notes:

This edition previously issued in print: 2018.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Jul 2020)

ISBN:

9780823281473

0823281477

9780823279739

0823279731

9780823279746

082327974X

OCLC:

1029634170