"Fallen from the Symboled World": Precedents for the New Formalism

by Wyatt Prunty, Prunty

Overview

A provocative and original analysis of figure and from in contemporary poetry, Fallen From the Symboled World will make an important contribution to the study of modern poetry and literature as well as to linguistics and literary criticism and analysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195057867
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	02/28/1990
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.56(h) x 1.18(d)

About the Author

Johns Hopkins University

Table of Contents

	Introduction	3
1	Symbol, Allegory, Causality, and the Phenomenal Flux	23
2	Emaciated Poetry and the Imaginative Diet	57
3	Poems That Speak, Poems That Sing	89
4	Howard Nemerov: Mimicry and Other Tropes	143
5	Patterns of Similitude in the Poetry of Justice, Hecht, Van Duyn, Bishop, Wilbur, Hollander, Pack, and Pinsky	193
	Conclusion	293
	Notes	301
	Index	311

Editorial Reviews

"Remarkable....Prunty's ultimate purpose is to define the basic difference between the poetry of the first half of this century and that of the second. It seems to me that he has achieved much greater success in this enterprise than has any other critic, and that he has in his interpretations of individual poems and poets restored the balance from an excessive concern with meter alone to a full appreciation of all aspects."—Hudson Review

"Recommended, particularly to graduate students and faculty, for its considerable thought, extensive learning, and attention to poets too long underrated or not yet recognized."—Choice

"Most valuable...is [Prunty's] reading of several poems by Mona Van Duyn, a poet often overlooked in discussions of poetry by American women."—Sewanee Review

"Prunty's "Fallen From the Symboled World" is an excellent first book of literary criticism by a highly talented young poet-critic. Prunty writes from a very definite "formalist" viewpoint but this is always subordinated to the overriding question of figuration in the poems he discusses, and his assessment of contemporary American poetry is both stringent and refreshing. There won't be any mixed reactions to this book—you'll either love it or you'll hate it. People who like formal poetry will love it. And since that's the kind of poetry I like, I recommend it."—John T. Irwin, The Johns Hopkins University

From the Publisher