The Force of PoetryChristopher Ricks is one of the best-known living critics of English, and was described by W. H. Auden as "the kind of critic every poet dreams of finding." Though published independently over many years, each of the essays in this collection asks how a poet's words reveal the "force ofpoetry," that force--in Dr Johnson's words--"which calls new power into being, which embodies sentiment, and animates matter." The poets covered range from John Gower, Marvell, and Milton to Wordsworth, Empson, Stevie Smith, Lowell, and Larkin, and the book contains four wider essays on cliches, lies, misquotations, and American English. |
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Page 110
... seem'd not a sky -it did not seem to be a sky at all , with this effect drawing strength from the way in which sky is brought to the very edge , up against that free space which is as invisible as the sky or the wind but as existent and ...
... seem'd not a sky -it did not seem to be a sky at all , with this effect drawing strength from the way in which sky is brought to the very edge , up against that free space which is as invisible as the sky or the wind but as existent and ...
Page 200
... seem the soul of tragedy , but next moment it seems cock - eyed . He had remembered enough to tell her to go to a clinic , anyway ; I speak under correction about visions , but I don't believe he would have had a vision just then if he ...
... seem the soul of tragedy , but next moment it seems cock - eyed . He had remembered enough to tell her to go to a clinic , anyway ; I speak under correction about visions , but I don't believe he would have had a vision just then if he ...
Page 211
... seems to make it more generous ) , partly from a self - contempt which , in search of relief , turns outwards , and lights on the man who seems likest to himself , for he too is half a spy in his own camp ; partly because he must kill ...
... seems to make it more generous ) , partly from a self - contempt which , in search of relief , turns outwards , and lights on the man who seems likest to himself , for he too is half a spy in his own camp ; partly because he must kill ...
Contents
Metamorphosis in other words | 1 |
Its own resemblance | 34 |
Sound and sense in Paradise Lost | 60 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
acknowledge American Appreciations become Beddoes begins better blood brackets bring called child cliché comes create criticism dark dead death earth effect Eliot Empson English Essays eyes face fact fear feel felt final force give Gower's hand heart Hill Hill's human hyphen idea imagination important instance Johnson kind language less lies light live look Lowell matter means metaphor mind move nature never once pain particular pass Pater perhaps person phrase play poem poet poetry possible Prelude present punctuation question relation rhyme seems seen sense silence simply song sound speak spirit story suggest tell thing thou thought touch true truth turn verse violence voice whole wish words Wordsworth write young