Synopses & Reviews
In 1991, Dana Gioia's provocative essay "Can Poetry Matter?" was published in the
Atlantic Monthly, and received more public response than any other piece in the magazine's history. In his book, Gioia more fully addressed the question: Is there a place for poetry to be part of modern American mainstream culture? Ten years later, the debate is as lively and heated as ever. Graywolf is pleased to re-issue this highly acclaimed collection in a handsome new edition, which includes a new Introduction by distinguished critic and poet, Dana Gioia.
An acclaimed poet, essayist, anthologist, BBC commentator, and critic, Dana Gioia is the author of Interrogations at Noon, a collection of poems that received the American Book Award, and Nosferatu, a libretto. He was recently nominated to be Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his family.
National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist
When it was originally published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1991, Gioia's landmark article "Can Poetry Matter?" received more public response than any other piece in the magazine's history. This provocative essay collection, a contemporary classic now appearing in a special tenth-anniversary edition and featuring a new Introduction by the author, addresses more fully Gioia's key question: Is there a place for poetry in modern American mainstream culture?
"This book is destined to be a classic."Michael J. Bugeja, Columbus Dispatch
"Gioia is an engaged, thoroughgoing, enthusiastic reader, one who infuses us with his passion for poetry. If you're an educated general reader, and you read only one book about contemporary poetry, this should be that book."Ray Olson, Booklist
"No one, I think, has written with greater clarity or greater poignancyor with a greater sense of urgency, eitherabout the 'subculture' in which the art of poetry is still confined."Hilton Kramer, The New Criterion
"Can Poetry Matter? is an important book, and anyone who professes to care about the state of American poetry will have to take it into account."World Literature Today
"This book is destined to be a classic."Michael J. Bugeja, Columbus Dispatch
Review
"No one, I think, has written with greater clarity or greater poignancy or with a greater sense of urgency..." Booklist
Review
"No one, I think, has written with greater clarity or greater poignancy -- or with a greater sense of urgency" Hilton Kramer, The New Criterion
Review
"Can Poetry Matter? is an important book, and anyone who professes to care about the state of American poetry will have to take it into account." World Literature Today
Synopsis
In 1991, Dana Gioia's provocative essay "Can Poetry Matter?" was published in the
Atlantic Monthly, and received more public response than any other piece in the magazine's history. In his book, Gioia more fully addressed the question: Is there a place for poetry to be part of modern American mainstream culture? Ten years later, the debate is as lively and heated as ever. Graywolf is pleased to re-issue this highly acclaimed collection in a handsome new edition, which includes a new Introduction by distinguished critic and poet, Dana Gioia.
About the Author
An acclaimed poet, essayist, anthologist, BBC commentator, and critic,
Dana Gioia is also the author of, most recently,
Interrogations at Noon, a collection of poems that received the American Book Award, and
Nosferatu, a libretto. He was recently nominated to be Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and lives in Santa Rosa, California, with his family.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Tenth-Anniversary Edition
Preface
Can Poetry Matter?
The Dilemma of the Long Poem
Notes on the New Formalism
Strong Counsel (Robinson Jeffers)
The Loneliness of Weldon Kees
The Anonymity of the Regional Poet (Ted Kooser)
Business and Poetry
Two Views of Wallace Stevens
The Sense of the Sleight-of-Hand Man
The Emperor of Hartford
Bourgeois in Bohemia (T. S. Eliot)
The Successful Career of Robert Bly
Short Views
John Ashbery
Margaret Atwood
Jared Carter
James Dickey
Tom Disch
Maxine Kumin
Radcliffe Squires
Theodore Weiss
The Difficult Case of Howard Moss
Tradition and an Individual Talent (Donald Justice)
The Example of Elizabeth Bishop
The Poet in an Age of Prose