Classic Writings on Poetry

The first major anthology of criticism devoted exclusively to poetry. Spanning thousands of years and including some of the most influential critical essays ever written, this is a collection of influential writings on poetry ranging from Aristotle to Laura (Riding) Jackson.

Library Journal

Controversy has long surrounded the poem. Sliding like an amoeba from one philosophy, culture, and generation to the next, it has only one truly defining feature: that it cannot be defined. In this groundbreaking anthology of criticism devoted strictly to poetry, poet and critic Harmon (humanities, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) collects some of the most influential writing on poetry by such philosophical royalty as Plato, Aristotle, Milton, Sir Philip Sidney, Wordsworth, and Emily Dickinson. Readers are given a peek through the hole of history's fence into the lives and worlds of our poetic geniuses and reminded of the poem's matchless role in conveying reverence, remembering wars, recording history, entertaining, expressing deep emotion, and above all, allowing the finite mind, for one moment, to contain infinity. Where Plato would consider poetry a corruptible force for youth, Sir Philip Sidney saw poetry as God's creative nature shown in humankind. Harmon not only supplies a useful survey of the history of specific poetics in the general introduction, but he also presents an introduction to each reading and a brief biography of each author. Recommended for upper-level academia and special collections in history and poetics.-Kim Harris, Rochester P.L., NY Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Poet, critic, and anthologist, William Harmon is the James Gordon Hanes Professor in the Humanities (English and Comparative Literature) at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the editor of The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, The Top 500 Poems, and The Classic Hundred Poems, all published by Columbia, as well as The Oxford Book of American Light Verse.