Synopses & Reviews
In his long-awaited first book of prose, poet and essayist Sherod Santos takes a compelling look into some of poetrys deepest secrets, an investigation that leads him to the surprising conclusion that poems have minds of their own, minds often inaccessible even to the one who composed them.
In these essays, Santos explores not only what he thinks about poetry but also what and how poetry thinks about itself. His writings range across the history of Western poetry, from formative classical myths to modern experimental forms, and touch on subjects as diverse as the rhetorical history of cannibalism, the political and cultural uses of translation, and the current state of American poetry. Along the way, he calls on past poets like Ovid, Baudelaire, and Phyllis Wheatley, on twentieth-century poets like Wallace Stevens, H. D., and Rainer Maria Rilke, and on writers and thinkers like Montaigne, Walter Benjamin, Simone Weil, and Paul de Man.
These essays explore facets of poetry known best to one who has practiced the art for years. From the methods of poetic attention to the processes by which perception is transformed into language and from the illusive relationship between poetry and meaning” to the integral relationship between poetry and memory, this collection delves into what it means to be a poet and how being a poet is intimately tied to ones social and cultural moment.
With Santoss trademark flair for seeking out the overlooked and unforeseeable, A Poetry of Two Minds is an extraordinary collection that testifies to its authors far-reaching intellectual curiosity. Readers who have delighted in his insights over the years can now have the satisfaction of having them caught between the covers of this provocative book.
Review
"Though it is perhaps unfashionable to say, I must confess I have never much enjoyed Sherod Santos' poetry. His prose, however, strikes in me a different chord. A diverse collection of lectures, reviews and journal notes, A Poetry of Two Minds, provides a rough map of this young poet's mind. A bold analysis of Shelley's Ozymandias; an insightful review of C.K. Williams and Charles Wright; a thoughtful reflection on the contemporary state of American poetry; these all chart the various folds and contours of Sherod's poetic thought, and, more importantly, probe the way in which poems create themselves—the primary thread of the book. It is a unique and thought-provoking anthology of observations. Perhaps the most revealing chapter is 'Subject Matter,' which Sherod calls a 'day-book.' Here we find an uneven seed-bed of poetry— reflections, observations, images, 'the omnium gatherum of everyday life'—young shoots, the first plantings set to perish or bloom in time. To read A Poetry of Two Minds is to travel through a foreign yet familiar landscape; it is 'an India of the mind.'" Reviewed by Andrew Witmer, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Review
"This book is so thoroughly engaging, so consistently insightful, so beautifully written, and covers such a wide range of topics relating to poetry that I read it not only with admiration and pleasure, but with a giddy sense that this was the best and clearest defense of poetry for our time that I knew of. Everything about it is convincing. Each observation, each judgment is presented or argued thoughtfully, fairly, generously. A Poetry of Two Minds is an astonishing book."--Mark Strand
Review
"In this engaging collection of critical essays . . . [Santos] infuse[s] his discussion of well-known poets with new ideas."--Library Journal
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-184) and index.
About the Author
Sherod Santos is the author of four volumes of poetry, most recently The Pilot Star Elegies, which was nominated for the National Book Award. In 1999 he received an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a professor of English at the University of Missouri-Columbia.