
A Little Book on Form
An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry
Robert Hass(Author)
Ecco Press
Published on 4. May 2017
Book
Hardback
464 pages
978-0-06-233242-4 (ISBN)
Description
From the former U.S. Poet Laureate, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winner, an illuminating dissection of poetic form, traditional and modern, for students, enthusiasts, and newcomers alike In addition to his magisterial poetry, Robert Hass is beloved for his incisive, meditative criticism. A Little Book on Form takes up the central contradiction between poetry as genre and the poetics of the imagination. A wealth of vocabulary exists with which to talk about, map, and explain poetry in rigorous formal terms. But the more intuitive, creative aspects of a poet's work and processes are more elusive: if the most interesting parts of form are those expressive, essential gestures inside it, how can we come to a better understanding of form as passion, as art? A Little Book on Form brilliantly synthesizes Hass's formidable gifts as both a poet and a critic. In suggestive, informal "notes," Hass breaks the idea of a poem down to its barest building blocks, from the one line haiku to the villanelle and sonnet. His approach singularly employs postmodern perspectives on shape, thought, feeling, content, and movement, calling on Catullus and Allen Ginsberg, Issa and Czeslaw Milosz.
Begun as a project for students of poetry, A Little Book is anything but-Hass investigates the ancient roots of the poetic impulse, taking a wide-ranging look at the most intense experience of human thought and feeling in language. A Little Book on Form is a rousing reexamination of our most enduring mode of literature from one of our greatest living poets, who "writes prose every bit as zestful, penetrating, and sure-footed as his poetry" (Booklist).
Begun as a project for students of poetry, A Little Book is anything but-Hass investigates the ancient roots of the poetic impulse, taking a wide-ranging look at the most intense experience of human thought and feeling in language. A Little Book on Form is a rousing reexamination of our most enduring mode of literature from one of our greatest living poets, who "writes prose every bit as zestful, penetrating, and sure-footed as his poetry" (Booklist).
Reviews / Votes
"Hass is so supremely learned about and so deeply immersed in poetry, he is able to comport himself not just with incredible authority but also with casual humor. . . . Disguised as a reference book, this is actually a friendly tour of one poet's mind." -- New York Times Book ReviewMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 36 mm
Weight
721 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-06-233242-4 (9780062332424)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
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E-Book
04/2017
1st Edition
HarperCollins
from
€15.99
Available for download
Person
Robert Hass was born in San Francisco. His books of poetry include The Apple Trees at Olema (Ecco, 2010), Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Time and Materials (Ecco, 2008), Sun Under Wood (Ecco, 1996), Human Wishes (1989), Praise (1979), and Field Guide (1973), which was selected by Stanley Kunitz for the Yale Younger Poets Series. Hass also co-translated several volumes of poetry with Nobel Laureate Czeslaw Milosz and authored or edited several other volumes of translation, including Nobel Laureate Tomas Transtromer's Selected Poems (2012) and The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa (1994). His essay collection Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry (1984) received the National Book Critics Circle Award. Hass served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997 and as Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. He lives in California with his wife, poet Brenda Hillman, and teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.