Private Poets, Worldly Acts: Public and Private History In Contemporary American Poetry - Hardcover

Stein, Kevin

3.8

5 ratings by Goodreads

9780821411636: Private Poets, Worldly Acts: Public and Private History In Contemporary American Poetry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0821411632 ISBN 13: 9780821411636

Publisher: Ohio University Press, 1996

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At a time when poets appear tragically detached from the public for which they write, Kevin Stein persuasively demonstrates in Private Poets, Worldy Acts the way a particular group of diverse poets have manifested their communal concerns. As Choice wrote, “Stein's graceful text is a primer on the relationship of the (American) poetic to the political.”

Looking through the lens of the careers of Robert Lowell, James Wright, Frank O'Hara, Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, Yusef Komunyakaa, Rita Dove, David Wojahn, and Carolyn Forch�, Stein illuminates the various ways contemporary poets redeem a vision of personal, aesthetic, and social relevancy from the shadow of traditionally narrated history.

Available now in an affordable paperback format, Private Poets, Worldly Acts is a thoughtful and compelling look into American poetry's redemptive venture into the public arena. What results is a renewed appreciation of contemporary poets' personal conversation with the culture to which they belong.

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Review:

Kevin Stein's insightful visions on poets and their work explore the writing of such giants as Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich within an adverse culture, Frank O'Hara and Yusef Komunyakaa facing and fighting history, Rita Dove's polyphonic perspectives, and David Wojahn's rock-and-roll sonnets. Stein's essay on the ethics in Carolyn Forche's heartrending Salvadoran poems (in "The Country Between Us") sets up a fascinating argument with ideas expressed in Jonathan Holden's "The Fate of American Poetry." The essays lift you beyond just reading a poem--to reading between its lines.

About the Author:

Kevin Stein is Professor of English at Bradley University.

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