The Way Down / John Burt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burt, John, author.

Contributor:

Millais, J. E., Contributor.

Series:

Princeton series of contemporary poets.

Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets ; 74

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century.

American poetry.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (89 pages).

Edition:

Course Book

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"For the sake of contraption (like Frost) and of character (like Robinson), John Burt will do a great deal, and his scope and scansion require a great deal, for his theme is nothing less than the reinvention of heroism (King Mark, Mary of Nazareth, St. Francis, Paolo and Francesca, Ariadne) and the invention of a new heroics (Woodrow Wilson, Willard Gibbs). As attentive to ekphrasis as to the sonnet's narrow room, Burt feels what he knows, and he knows that we can learn from the past only by repeating it. A grand achievement!"--Richard Howard.Almost all these poems are narrative, telling stories that turn on some small but crucial shift of sensibility. One hears in them a speaking rather than a singing voice, a voice which, for all its formality and gravity, remains oral and sociable, a voice which tells things rather than spins charms. Their predominant mood is lucid asperity, sometimes breaking out into the angry Calvinism they always barely keep down, sometimes striving to achieve a humane skepticism that always just eludes them.The book consists of two sections, one concerned with the cruxes and contradictions of private feeling, the other with the unraveling of the public world. Each section centers on a long narrative poem that culminates the building tensions of the poems that precede it and makes possible the resolutions that follow them.Sonnet I from "St. Francis and the Wolf" Saved at last, not at the last of me, I knelt two-legged, made of guttural air A little yelp to sound like human prayer. The saints were cautious, understandably.I took the cup, and managed not to drool, But dreamed the wine was blood, as I'd been taught, And vainly curbed the vain bent of my thought. I knew myself an angel, felt a fool.Could God have erred in making teeth and maw? Then for his glory I will bite the lamb Whose terror he transmogrifies to awe That I may do his service as I am,Till as I am I leap the mortal gulf To rage in heaven, a perfected wolf.Originally published in 1988.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Acknowledgments

Contents

The Triumph Of Love

The Funeral Day

Three Songs from Paintings / Millais, J. E.

Songs of Innocence

Ballet Academy

Ariadne

Paolo and Francesca

Waiting for Birds

On the Will to Believe

Learning the Table

Teratocarcinoma

The Homecoming of Bran

King Mark's Dream

From the Diary of Willard Gibbs

Photograph from Luzon, 1899

His Kind-Hearted Woman

Leonce Pontellier

Rich Blind Minotaur Led by a Girl

Winter: Hunters in Snow

In the Subway

After the Thunderstorm

Pueblo Fairgrounds

The Zeppelin Watchers

Robert Falcon Scott Enters Paradise

The Plague-Maiden

Andrew Ramsay at the Somme

Plains of Peace

Sonnets for Mary of Nazareth

Nocturne

St. Francis and the Wolf

Trucks on a Hill in Winter

Thomaston Dam

Notes

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780691602783

0691602786

9780691632230

0691632235

9780691014432

0691014434

9781400859221

1400859220

OCLC:

889255052