James Merrill's Poetic Quest

by Don Adams

Overview

Relatively little critical attention has been directed towards the explication of James Merrill's difficult poems, much less towards the understanding of his densely-layered symbolism. This is the first comprehensive study to look at Merrill's difficult symbolic system and to provide a close reading of Merrill's epic poem The Changing Light at Sandover. Adams reads Merrill's poetry through various lenses, primarily those of Freudian psychology and of the Jungian archetypal system. His approach allows the reader to view individual works as part of the larger picture of Merrill's quest to save his life through his art.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780313302503
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	04/30/1997
Series:	Contributions to the Study of World Literature , #81
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.56(d)
Lexile:	1280L (what's this?)

About the Author

DON ADAMS is Assistant Professor of English at Florida Atlantic University.

Table of Contents

Contents
Preface
Introduction
Time's Damage and Time's Grief: An Introduction to the Quest Model
Heroes Without Name or Origin: The Quest in Merrill's Early Work
The Incarnation and Withdrawal of a God: "The Book of Ephraim"
Solving this Riddle of Appearances: Mirabell's Books of Number
Empty Perfection: Scripts for the Pageant and the Higher Keys
To All, Sweet Dreams: Concluding the Quest
Works Cited
Index

Editorial Reviews

Strives to make the contemporary New York poet more accessible by showing that he is not as elitist as most critics say. Working primarily through Freudian psychology and Jung's archetypal system, centextualizes Merrill's work in literary and intellectual tradition, and argues that it combines the confessional poet's autobiographical openness with the mythologizing poet's use of tightly packed symbolism. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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