Poetic Language

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The first study of poetic language from a historical and philosophical perspective
In a series of 12 chapters, exemplary poems - by Walter Ralegh, John Milton,William Cowper, William Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Frank O'Hara, Robert Creeley, W. S. Graham, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley and Thomas A. Clark - are read alongside theoretical discussions of poetic language.
The discussions provide a jargon-free account of a wide range of historical and contemporary schools of thought about poetic language, and an organised, coherent critique of those schools (including analytical philosophy, cognitive poetics, structuralism and post-structuralism). Via close readings of poems from 1600 to the present readers are taken through a wide range of styles including modernist, experimental and innovative poetries. Paired chapters within a chronological structure allow lecturers and students to approach the material in a variety of ways (by individual chapters, paired historical periods) that are appropriate to different courses.
Key Features:
Surveys a variety of linguistic and philosophical approaches to poetic language: analytical, cognitive, post-structuralist, pragmatic
Provides readings of complete poems and places those readings within the wider context of each poet's work
Combines theory and practice
Includes a Glossary, Notes on Poets and Suggested Further Reading

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Acknowledgements (p. vi)
• How to use this book (p. viii)
• 1 Introduction (p. 1)
• 2 Figure: Walter Ralegh (p. 19)
• 3 Selection: William Cowper (p. 31)
• 4 Measure: William Wordsworth (p. 43)
• 5 Equivalence: Gerard Manley Hopkins (p. 56)
• 6 Spirit: Wallace Stevens (p. 70)
• 7 Spirit: Frank O'Hara (p. 86)
• 8 Measure: Robert Creeley (p. 103)
• 9 Deviance: W. S. Graham (p. 116)
• 10 Figure: Tom Raworth (p. 132)
• 11 Selection: Denise Riley (p. 148)
• 12 Equivalence: Thomas A. Clark (p. 161)
• 13 Epilogue: Deviance: Robert Creeley (p. 175)
• Further Reading (p. 183)
• Notes on Poets (p. 189)
• Glossary (p. 195)
• Index (p. 200)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Though Jones (Univ. of St. Andrews, UK) slogs through some daunting theories of poetic language, exploring ideas encountered in analytical philosophy, cognitive poetics, speech-act theory, pragmatics, and, most notably, structuralism and poststructuralism, he nevertheless arrives at several compelling conclusions, namely, that the "institution of language" is simultaneously contingent and necessary and that poetic language transforms the "linguistic-conceptual world" of its readers. Amid his discussions of language theory, the author comments perceptively on the works of more than a dozen poets, focusing in particular on Walter Raleigh, William Cowper, William Wordsworth, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Wallace Stevens, Frank O'Hara, Robert Creeley, W. S. Graham, Tom Raworth, Denise Riley, and Thomas A. Clark. The chronological ordering of the remarks on specific poets and poems reveals the historical perspective the author attempts to convey. Jones does employ some jargon and, on occasion, what might be called dubious diction (for instance, "numerosity," "poetician"), and yet the book is, on the whole, clear and accessible. Fully and carefully documented, this study builds on the work of scholars such as Jan Mukarovsky, Derek Attridge, and Julia Kristeva. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. D. D. Kummings emeritus, University of Wisconsin--Parkside