Broken Ground
Poetry and the Demon of History
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- $34.99
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- $34.99
Publisher Description
In Broken Ground, William Logan explores the works of canonical and contemporary poets, rediscovering the lushness of imagination and depth of feeling that distinguish poetry as a literary art. The book includes long essays on Emily Dickinson’s envelopes, Ezra Pound’s wrestling with Chinese, Robert Frost’s letters, Philip Larkin’s train station, and Mrs. Custer’s volume of Tennyson, each teasing out the depths beneath the surface of the page.
Broken Ground also presents the latest run of Logan’s infamous poetry chronicles and reviews, which for twenty-five years have bedeviled American verse. Logan believes that poetry criticism must be both adventurous and forthright—and that no reader should settle for being told that every poet is a genius. Among the poets under review by the “preeminent poet-critic of his generation” and “most hated man in American poetry” are Anne Carson, Jorie Graham, Paul Muldoon, John Ashbery, Geoffrey Hill, Louise Glück, John Berryman, Marianne Moore, Frederick Seidel, Les Murray, Yusef Komunyakaa, Sharon Olds, Johnny Cash, James Franco, and the former archbishop of Canterbury.
Logan’s criticism stands on the broken ground of poetry, soaked in history and soiled by it. These essays and reviews work in the deep undercurrents of our poetry, judging the weak and the strong but finding in weakness and strength what endures.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This bracing collection of often lacerating criticism from poet Logan (Dickinson's Nerves, Frost's Woods) pierces the heart of poetry, revealing "what a poem is concealing." Logan showcases his ability to cut to the core of a poet's or poem's shortcomings: Linda Bierds, for example, "writes poems the way Cordon Bleu chefs make wedding cakes—you can hardly imagine a poem with more layers of icing or empty calories... the results are hollow as puff pastry," while Anne Carson's "characters have all the emotional range of department-store mannequins, and not intelligent mannequins." A review of James Franco's poetry, meanwhile, is a jumping-off point for a critique of "the poetry-as-therapy movement." Logan offers sustained appreciations of the "beguiling" letters of Robert Frost, Geoffrey Hill's imaginative poetry, and Emily Dickinson for having had "the deepest poetic mind of the nineteenth century." At times, Logan unnecessarily veers out of criticism (wondering about Sharon Olds's sex life, for example), but when he's skewering the pretenses of contemporary poets, poems, and criticism itself, he's sharp and funny: "Too many poetry critics sound like cheerleaders for the Dallas Cowboys, having signed nondisclosure agreements with the poets under review." His candid criticism enlivens an often-stale atmosphere.
