275. (Charles Baudelaire)

There’s much agreement that he speaks to and of a modern malaise like no other poet. He seems, at times, … More

265. (William Empson)

With each return to Empson’s criticism, a new fulcrum point on which it can be turned. The chapter on “Candid … More

Matthew Arnold suggests how a thoroughgoing Platonism might help us think through art, criticism, and more: “the application of ideas … More

What is the appeal of criticism, of reading or doing it? It must rest in beguilement at judgment itself, and … More

William Empson’s Seven Types of Ambiguity is an acknowledged classic of literary criticism, but it is also among the most … More

In the blog posts lately, I’ve discussed literature as happening when an author gets a condition of judgment inside of … More

That great literature balances great forces judiciously, that it calms a turbulence of mind, and that it communicates truths that … More

Empson’s final words on the poem “Bacchus,” a poem about drink, in one of his statements on it: “I think … More

It’s difficult to know what to do with Robert Burns, besides read and enjoy him, and take fortification from him; … More

Curiously, coming as late in the book as it does, the chapter on Bentley and Milton in Some Versions of Pastoral … More