In Praise of the Impure: Poetry and the Ethical Imagination: Essays, 1980-1991

by Alan Shapiro

Overview

Alan Shapiro is not only a much-lauded poet but also one of America's most intelligent and clearheaded thinkers about poetry. In Praise of the Impure collects his passionate, rigorously argued essays on the situation of poetry in American culture today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810150256
Publisher:	Northwestern University Press
Publication date:	11/15/1993
Edition description:	1
Pages:	185
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

ALAN SHAPIRO is the author of four books of poetry, including Happy Hour, which won the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America, and Covenant. He teaches at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and is the recipient of a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Writer's Award.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part 1
The Flexible Rule: The Ethical Imagination
In Praise of the Impure: Narrative Consciousness in Poetry

Part 2
The New Formalism
Some Notes on Free Verse and Meter

Part 3
"Far Lamps At Night": The Poetry of J. V. Cunningham
Some Thoughts on Robert Hass
"Itinerary" by James McMichael
The Liberal Imagination of Robert Pinsky's Explanation of America
"a living to fail": The Case of John Berryman

Part 4
The Dead Alive and Busy
Horace and the Reformation of Creative Writing
The Early Seventies and J. V. Cunningham

Editorial Reviews

A collection of essays on the situation of poetry in contemporary American culture, from Shapiro's multiple perspectives as poet (four volumes), teacher of poetry (U. of North Carolina, Greensboro), and reader. A TriQuarterly book. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

"Shapiro has produced work of such authority and originality that he has permanently enlarged my hopes and expectations for contemporary poetry." —Tom Sleigh, Boston Review

From the Publisher