The Force of Poetry

Christopher Ricks

ISBN 10: 0198183267 / ISBN 13: 9780198183266

Published by Oxford University Press, GB, 1995

About this Item

Christopher 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 indepenently over many years, each of the essays in this collection of his writings asks how a poets words reveal the `force of poetry', 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 clichés, lies, misquotations, and American English.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780198183266

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Force of Poetry
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, GB
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198183267
• ISBN 13: 9780198183266
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: Revised ed.
• Condition: New
• Dimensions: 20.3W x 12.7H x 2.62D centimeters 20.3 centimeters width by 12.7 centimeters height by 2.62 centimeters depth
• Weight: 508 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Christopher 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 of poetry," 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 clichés, lies, misquotations, and American English.

About the Author

Christopher 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'. He is author of Beckett's Dying Words (OUP, 1993), Keats and Embarrassment (OUP, 1974), and editor of The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (Oxford, 1987).