Research Catalog

Title

The language(s) of poetry : Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins / James Olney.

Author

Olney, James.

Publication

Athens : University of Georgia Press, ©1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 158 pages; 23 cm.

Summary

In this clear, succinct, and engaging book, noted critic James Olney explores the work of three seemingly disparate precursors of modernism - Whitman, Dickinson, and Hopkins - and establishes a set of criteria by which any reader might judge and better appreciate a poem. Considering the language of the poets' times, their unique ways with language, and what he calls the "nearly ahistorical language" of poetry, Olney arrives at three properties that form a kind of common ground in poetry, regardless of the cultural context or the era in which the poem was written. These properties are a heightened rhythmization of language, an elevated figurativity of language, and a highly personal, distinctive eccentricity that shapes both the poetic vision and the technical means used to express it. In three chapters, each focusing on one of these properties, Olney shows how the poets shaped these elements in their own distinctive ways. "Dickinsonian" verse, he notes, displays a metrical regularity reminiscent of hymns. It is also a thoroughly metaphorical poetry that works through figures of similarity and resemblance, and it reveals an unmistakable economy as well as a "darting, quicksilver" elusiveness. Whitman's highly rhythmic, but entirely nonmetrical, poetry is dominated by figures of correlation and connection. His verse, pervaded by an insatiate desire to annex the human world and universe to himself, has a sense of being neverending. Hopkins's poems are markedly rhythmic and even metrical, but not according to any traditional or inherited system of metrics. Figuratively mixed, they are highly wrought poems that observe the strictest formalities in order to subjugate unruly and explosive emotions. Throughout his discussions, Olney quotes extensively from the poetry of all three figures and also conveys much about the effect of their personal lives on their work. In plain terms that neither obfuscate nor overshadow his subjects, Olney helps us to understand better the ways in which poets defamiliarize our world and make us see it anew.

Series Statement

Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt lecture series ; no. 2

Uniform Title

Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt lecture series ; no. 2.

Alternative Title

• Language of poetry
• Languages of poetry

Subject

• Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892 > Criticism and interpretation
• Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886 > Criticism and interpretation
• Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 1844-1889 > Criticism and interpretation
• Dickinson, Emily, 1830-1886
• Hopkins, Gerard Manley, 1844-1889
• Whitman, Walt, 1819-1892
• 1800-1899
• American poetry > 19th century > History and criticism
• American poetry
• Criticism and interpretation

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-153) and index.

Contents

1. Sprung Rhythm, Common Meter, and the Barbaric Yawp -- 2. Tropes of Presence, Tropes of Absence -- 3. Making Strange.

Call Number

JFD 95-14310

ISBN

• 0820314854
• 9780820314853

LCCN

92012564

OCLC

25630057

Author

Olney, James.

Title

The language(s) of poetry : Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins / James Olney.

Imprint

Athens : University of Georgia Press, ©1993.

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt lecture series ; no. 2

Jack N. and Addie D. Averitt lecture series ; no. 2.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-153) and index.

Connect to:

Table of contents (PDF)

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Research Call Number

JFD 95-14310