Read Online A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry Robert Hass 9780062332431 Books
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From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner, an illuminating dissection of poetic form for students, enthusiasts, and newcomers alike
A Little Book on Form brilliantly synthesizes Hass’s formidable gifts as both a poet and essayist. In it he takes up the central tension between poetry as genre and the poetics of the imagination. A wealth of vocabulary exists with which to talk about poetry in traditional formal terms. But the more intuitive, creative parts of a poet’s work and processes are more elusive if the most interesting aspect of form is the shaping power of the essential, expressive gestures inside it, how do we come to a language in which to speak about form as the search for the radiant shapes— the wholeness or brokenness—we experience inside powerful works of art?
In suggestive, informal “notes,” Haas thinks through the idea of a poem from its barest building blocks—the one line haiku, the brief epigram or prayer—to the complex villanelle and sonnet, and beyond them, to the grand forms of elegy and ode through which poets across human cultures have investigated the shapes of grieving and desiring. His approach singularly employs postmodern perspectives on shape, thought, feeling, content, and movement, calling on Catullus and Allen Ginsberg, Kobayashi Issa and Czesław Miłosz. Begunb as a project for students of poetry, A Little Book on Form is anything but—Hass investigates the ancient roots of the poetic impulse, taking a wide-ranging look at the most intense experience of human thought and feeling in language.
Read Online A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry Robert Hass 9780062332431 Books
"Anything by Hass is a worthy investment"
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Tags : A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry [Robert Hass] on . <em></em> <strong>From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner,Robert Hass,A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry,Ecco,0062332430,Composition Creative Writing,Essays,Poetry,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Composition Creative Writing,LANGUAGE ARTS DISCIPLINES / Writing / General,LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Essays,LITERARY CRITICISM / Books Reading,LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry,Language Arts Disciplines/Writing - General,Literary Criticism,Literary Criticism/Books Reading,Literary Forms,poetry; criticism; form; robert hass
A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry Robert Hass 9780062332431 Books Reviews :
A Little Book on Form An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry Robert Hass 9780062332431 Books Reviews
- A Little Book on Form by Robert Hass is a very interesting work developed from notes for a poetry seminar conducted by him at the Writer’s Workshop at University of Iowa. Hass explores the process of formal creation of a poem starting with one line as a basic gesture, moving to the relationship of two lines to each other and the beginnings of the possibility of form that this relationship suggests, then moving to three lines as another possibility and then four lines as two pairs of two lines as yet another possibility, with the idea that a poem is built up of combinations of these basic structures. Hass goes on to explore several forms and genres, including overviews and a more extensive examination of the sonnet form and its development since the 13th century, and a short section on the villanelle and sestina as forms adopted by Victorian poets from medieval French and Provencal poetry, He then presents several very interesting sections on development of genre poetry including the ode and the elegy and how the changing modes of thought during the development of these genres are reflected in their underlying structures. These sections include both historic overviews as well as more focused reading of some example poems. A very wide variety of poems are presented for further exploration.
Although a large number of poems are presented in the book, the prospective reader would be well advised to have a copy of one of the Norton Anthologies of Poetry on hand (in fact, Hass suggests this, as the present book was intended for a graduate seminar and the students would be expected to have the Norton anthology). As an exercise, for example, he suggest the reader take an afternoon to read several odes of Wordsworth, Coleridge and Keats to compare their structure and “finish;†some of these are not included in this book. He also mentions numerous books for further in depth reading on a specific topic.
I did notice on page 154 that Donne’s “Holy Sonnet VII†(one of the very few poems I know by heart) was missing a line “All whom warre, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies.â€
I found this a very interesting and stimulating book, and am going back through it now a little more slowly to work through some of the exercises and projects Hass suggests. - If you know Robert Hass, you don't need a review. If you don't, he is a beautiful and brilliant poet, and his book provides a phenomenal understanding of how 'form' creates the effects of poetry -- and how 'form' is profoundly important to the understanding of thought and linguistic communication. He writes in relatively short, numbered paragraphs that immediately allow you to think along with him and submerge yourself in the many, broadly chosen examples of his subject from all of poetry. His work is in the same league as Helen Vendler's for its depth of understanding and clarity. It's both exciting and fun to read. (I'd go so far to say if you're going to buy one nonfiction book this year, buy this one.)
- Robert Hass's prose voice is a lot more wooden than his poetry voice. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful book, thoughtful and surprising.
- Clear-headed and concise, but you wouldn't expect anything less from a gifted, perceptive writer and poet like Robert Hass.
- Sonnet, villanelle, ode, elegy, sestina, georgic, blank verse, free verse, and more...What defines them? Where did they come from? Who first wrote them and how did they evolve later? And more. With reading lists and examples.
- Extraordinary book for me
Listening to the word of poetry through the lens of a master. - what a truly wonderful book - a delight to have, a joy to read
- Anything by Hass is a worthy investment
