The stroke of a pen : essays on poetry and other provocations / Samuel Hazo.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hazo, Samuel, 1928- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American essays--20th century.

American essays.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 136 pages)

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, [2011]

Summary:

For over five decades, Samuel Hazo has taught his readers about literature and life with generosity and awareness, taking everyday experiences and translating them into songs at once familiar and surprising. In his poetry, fiction, essays, and plays, Hazo, in a style that is unmistakably his own, extols the wonderment and discovery that emerge in the act of writing, in the movement toward wisdom that results from the expression of feeling. The Stroke of a Pen is a collection of the occasional essays on a variety of subjects, from the relationship between poetry and public speech, to the pursuit of the literary life, to reading within a cultural context governed by power relations. Two essays focus on religion and literature, and the final five include a literary travel essay on Provence, a counterpointing one on the virtues of not traveling but remaining home, a lighter essay that extends the discussion of home to houses, a memory piece on the actor Gregory Peck, and a personal reflection on the author's retirement. Throughout, Hazo is belletristic in his approach, calling on such writers as T. S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, Jacques Maritain, and Nathan A. Scott, Jr., who deeply influences Hazo's thinking and writing in this entertaining collection.

Contents:

Intro; Contents; Preface; Part I; Chapter One:Poetry and Public Speech; Chapter Two: Power and Pretense; Chapter Three: Strike Down the Band; Chapter Four: The Lasting Marriage of Knowledge and Belief; Chapter Five: Belief and the Critic; Part I I; Chapter Six: Endthoughts of a Recent Retiree; Chapter Seven: Provence of the Six Winds; Chapter Eight: Why Go Anywhere Whenever?; Chapter Nine: Remembering Gregory Peck; Chapter Ten: To Wrestle a Slow Thief; Sources.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9780268081706

0268081700

OCLC:

1039684259