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 18
... turn of a rhyme to combine a turn of phrase and a turn of fortune or a turning of shape . The rhyme of fille and fulfille , despite what may be truly said of medieval conventions , could perhaps still feel different from the rhyme which ...
... turn of a rhyme to combine a turn of phrase and a turn of fortune or a turning of shape . The rhyme of fille and fulfille , despite what may be truly said of medieval conventions , could perhaps still feel different from the rhyme which ...
Page 139
... turn within the word turning . Its main sense is simply ' changing to , ' a calm and peaceful metamorphosis so unlike the usual violences and violations of metamorphosis . But the gentle pressure of ' sense ' before it , and of ...
... turn within the word turning . Its main sense is simply ' changing to , ' a calm and peaceful metamorphosis so unlike the usual violences and violations of metamorphosis . But the gentle pressure of ' sense ' before it , and of ...
Page 210
... turn a sire , boys ? Shall I choose a friend ? The fat is in the pyre , boys , waiting for the end . ' Shall I turn a sire , boys ? ' : it is a scorching question , and of the three Shall I's here , the only one which needed to be clad ...
... turn a sire , boys ? Shall I choose a friend ? The fat is in the pyre , boys , waiting for the end . ' Shall I turn a sire , boys ? ' : it is a scorching question , and of the three Shall I's here , the only one which needed to be clad ...
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