Our Savage Art
Poetry and the Civil Tongue
Columbia University Press
Our Savage Art
Poetry and the Civil Tongue
Columbia University Press
The most notorious poet-critic of his generation, William Logan has defined our view of poets good and bad, interesting and banal, for more than three decades. Featured in the New York Times Book Review, the Times Literary Supplement, and the New Criterion, among other journals, Logan's eloquent, passionate prose never fails to provoke readers and poets, reminding us of the value and vitality of the critic's savage art.
Like The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Our Savage Art features the corrosive wit and darkly discriminating critiques that have become the trademarks of Logan's style. Opening with a defense of the critical eye, this collection features essays on Robert Lowell's correspondence, Elizabeth Bishop's unfinished poems, the inflated reputation of Hart Crane, the loss of the New Critics, and a damning-and already highly controversial-indictment of an edition of Robert Frost's notebooks.
Logan also includes essays on Derek Walcott and Geoffrey Hill, two crucial figures in the divided world of contemporary poetry, and an attempt to rescue the reputation of the nineteenth-century poet John Townsend Trowbridge. Short reviews consider John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Seamus Heaney, and dozens of others. Though he might be called a cobra with manners, Logan is a fervent advocate for poetry, and Our Savage Art continues to raise the standard of what the critic can do.
Like The Undiscovered Country: Poetry in the Age of Tin, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, Our Savage Art features the corrosive wit and darkly discriminating critiques that have become the trademarks of Logan's style. Opening with a defense of the critical eye, this collection features essays on Robert Lowell's correspondence, Elizabeth Bishop's unfinished poems, the inflated reputation of Hart Crane, the loss of the New Critics, and a damning-and already highly controversial-indictment of an edition of Robert Frost's notebooks.
Logan also includes essays on Derek Walcott and Geoffrey Hill, two crucial figures in the divided world of contemporary poetry, and an attempt to rescue the reputation of the nineteenth-century poet John Townsend Trowbridge. Short reviews consider John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Billy Collins, Rita Dove, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Seamus Heaney, and dozens of others. Though he might be called a cobra with manners, Logan is a fervent advocate for poetry, and Our Savage Art continues to raise the standard of what the critic can do.
There is a grain of truth in almost everything [Logan] writes. Jordan Davis, Times Literary Supplement
Logan's prose is polished, witty, authoritative, and courageous.... Highly recommended. Choice
The latest installment in William Logan's prolonged and rambunctious assault on the state of American poetry. Mark Ford, New York Times Book Review
One of the wittiest and most astute poet-critics of our—or any—generation.... A work of devilish wit, arrogance, insight, and intellect.The Dark Horse Rory Waterman, The Dark Horse
Who's the Best Poetry Critic in America? His name I can mention. William Logan. James Wolcott
Arguably the most industrious and notorious poet-critic to brandish that hyphen like a knife between his teeth since his acknowledged master Randall Jarrell.... He often comes off as nothing so much as the Dirty Harry of the poetry beat. David Barber, New York Times Book Review
Acknowledgments
The Bowl of Diogenes; or, The End of Criticism
Verse Chronicle: Out on the Lawn
Verse Chronicle: Stouthearted Men
The Most Contemptible Moth: Lowell in Letters
Forward Into the Past: Reading the New Critics
Verse Chronicle: One If by Land
Verse Chronicle: The Great American Desert
The State with the Prettiest Name
Elizabeth Bishop Unfinished
Elizabeth Bishop's Sullen Art
Verse Chronicle: Jumping the Shark
Verse Chronicle: Victoria's Secret
Attack of the Anthologists
The Lost World of Lawrence Durrell
Hart Crane Overboard
On Reviewing Hart Crane
The Endless Ocean of Derek Walcott
The Civil Power of Geoffrey Hill
Verse Chronicle: God's Chatter
Verse Chronicle: Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Luff
Pynchon in the Poetic
Back to the Future (Thomas Pynchon )
Verse Chronicle: The World Is Too Much with Us
Verse Chronicle: Valentine's Day Massacre
The Forgotten Masterpiece of John Townsend Trowbridge
Frost at Midnight
Interview by Garrick Davis
Permissions
Books Under Review
Index of Authors Reviewed
The Bowl of Diogenes; or, The End of Criticism
Verse Chronicle: Out on the Lawn
Verse Chronicle: Stouthearted Men
The Most Contemptible Moth: Lowell in Letters
Forward Into the Past: Reading the New Critics
Verse Chronicle: One If by Land
Verse Chronicle: The Great American Desert
The State with the Prettiest Name
Elizabeth Bishop Unfinished
Elizabeth Bishop's Sullen Art
Verse Chronicle: Jumping the Shark
Verse Chronicle: Victoria's Secret
Attack of the Anthologists
The Lost World of Lawrence Durrell
Hart Crane Overboard
On Reviewing Hart Crane
The Endless Ocean of Derek Walcott
The Civil Power of Geoffrey Hill
Verse Chronicle: God's Chatter
Verse Chronicle: Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Luff
Pynchon in the Poetic
Back to the Future (Thomas Pynchon )
Verse Chronicle: The World Is Too Much with Us
Verse Chronicle: Valentine's Day Massacre
The Forgotten Masterpiece of John Townsend Trowbridge
Frost at Midnight
Interview by Garrick Davis
Permissions
Books Under Review
Index of Authors Reviewed