Allusion to the Poets

Allusion to the words and phrases of ancestral voices is one of the hiding-places of poetry's power. Poets appreciate the great debts that they owe to previous poets, and are often duly and newly grateful. Allusion to the Poets consists of twelve essays - four published here for the first time - on allusion and its relations, in particular on the use that poets in English have made of the very words of poets in English. The first half of thebook, on 'The Poet as Heir', consists of six chapters devoted to individual poets, Augustan, Romantic, and Victorian: Dryden and Pope, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, and Tennyson. Allusion is always aform of inheritance, not to be hoarded or squandered. The critical and creative question is its imaginative co-operation with other kinds of legacy - with whatever for a particular poet or for a particular time is judged to be an unignorable inheritance: of a throne, perhaps, or of land; of intermixed languages; of the human senses; of money; of literature itself; or of our planet, long-lived but not eternal. The second half of the book is six essays on allusion'saffiliations: to plagiarism (allusion being plagiarism's responsible opposite); to metaphor (allusion being a form that metaphor may take); to loneliness in poetry (allusion constituting company); to allusionwithin poetry to prose (on A E. Housman); to translation as exercising allusion (on David Ferry); and to the clash between one poet's practice and his critical principles (on Yvor Winters).

“"Ricks examines the transfer of poetic power in his brilliant and witty study.... Ricks [is] a painstaking scholar and editor as well as the most stringent and imaginative of close readers.... No other critic in our age...has dared to isolate this wonderfully ramifying, richly human subject [allusion]...and given it such intensive treatment. With this book about poets and their gratitude, Ricks has earned ours."--The Guardian "Chistopher Ricks'sAllusion to the Poetsmade it clear again just what is so great about a great literary critic."--Adam Phillips, Books of the Year,Observer Review "[These] energetic essays [are] witty and engaging meditations...on the relationships between poem and cultural heritage.... A dazzling performance, especially considering the rapidity and variety of [Ricks's] references.... Consistently intellectual, challenging, and stimulating."--Choice "Allusion to the Poetssparkles with an enjoyment that answers repeatedly to the delighted complexity and play of alert poetic imagination: for a long time to come, all good critics will be Christopher Ricks's heirs."--Peter McDonald,Times Literary Supplement "Ricks is a remarkable literary critic, and this book explores the relationship of poets to their predecessors, extending in a new way the vein he mined inT.S. Eliot and Prejudice.... A lovely book, to be enjoyed and learned from, and not only, or even especially, by academics."--Virginia QuarterlyReview "[W]itty and engaging meditations (in the sense of prolonged thought) on the relationships between poem and cultural heritage. Ricks's writing style is close to that of an extempore lecture; the effect is a dazzling performance, especially considering the rapidity and variety of his references. Where else would one find identification of traces of Burns in Bob Dylan or such pithy responses as Rick's to Laura Rosenthal'sPlaywrights and Plagiarists in Early Modern England(1996)...Consistently intellectual, challenging, and stimulation, there are fine essays for the advanced scholar."--Choice "[A] brilliant critic.... Ricks has valuable insights into the human psyche and the 'moral life.'"--P. N. Furbank,The Threepenny Review”

Review from previous edition Subtly shows the way in which seven great poets have quoted their predecessors in their writings, and the richness of meaning they have gained from that.'Derwent MayAllusion to the Poets sparkles with an enjoyment that answers repeatedly to the delighted complexity and play of alert poetic imagination: for a long time to come, all good critics will be Christopher Ricks's heirs.'Peter McDonald, Times Literary Supplement`Brilliant, witty, and illuminating . . . No other critic in our age . . . has dared to isolate this wonderfully ramifying, richly human subject (which requires great learning, lightly worn) and given it such intensive treatment. With this book about poets and their gratitude, Ricks has earned ours.'Philip Horne, The Guardian Review

Professor Christopher Ricks is Warren Professor of the Humanities at Boston University and co-director of the Editorial Institute. He has taught at Boston University since 1986; he was formerly King Edward VII Professor of English Literature at the University of Cambridge. He is the general editor of two series, Penguin English Poets and Poets in Translation, and the co-editor of Essays in Criticism. In 2002 he delivered the Panizzi Lectures in Bibliography at theBritish Library.

Allusion to the words and phrases of ancestral voices is one of the hiding-places of poetry's power. Poets appreciate the great debts that they owe to previous poets, and are often duly and newly grateful. Allusion to the Poets consists of twelve essays - four published here for the first time - on allusion and its relations, in particular on the use that poets in English have made of the very words of poets in English. The first half of the book, on 'The Poet as Heir', consists of six chapters devoted to individual poets, Augustan, Romantic, and Victorian: Dryden and Pope, Burns, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats, and Tennyson. Allusion is always a form of inheritance, not to be hoarded or squandered. The critical and creative question is its imaginative co-operation with other kinds of legacy - with whatever for a particular poet or for a particular time is judged to be an unignorable inheritance: of a throne, perhaps, or of land; of intermixed languages; of the human senses; of money; of literature itself; or of our planet, long-lived but not eternal. The second half of the book is six essays on allusion's affiliations: to plagiarism (allusion being plagiarism's responsible opposite); to metaphor (allusion being a form that metaphor may take); to loneliness in poetry (allusion constituting company); to allusion within poetry to prose (on A E. Housman); to translation as exercising allusion (on David Ferry); and to the clash between one poet's practice and his critical principles (on Yvor Winters).

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.