What opens when “pattern,” rather than “form” is allowed to guide our reading of literature? It might be thought a … More
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370. (Samuel Johnson)
Lately, I’ve been thinking—as a teacher and reader of criticism—about how criticism depends on discerning and working out various puzzles. … More
366. (John Milton)
In a work of literature, rightness of feeling coincides with a feeling of rightness; authors apprehend just what and how … More
351. (Sonia Sanchez)
One divide in post-1950, maybe post-1960, American poetry could be said to grow out of the claims of the eye. … More
349. (Jim Powell)
If readers come across Jim Powell, it is most likely to be in his translation of Sappho—his only work in … More
347. (William Carlos Williams)
William Carlos Williams, whose poetry I’ve long felt to be, in hazy terms, slack and arbitrary, claiming, by its effusion, … More
342. (Aristotle)
The word “Virtue” can smack of the pious or sentimental, smoked with the incense of sentimentality. I think, though, that … More
332. (William Wordsworth)
The strange and wondrous movement of Wordsworth’s blank verse can be felt with special force in a poem that is … More