About this book
True-Love is the fulfillment of revered poet-critic Allen Grossman's long service to poetry in the interests of humanity. Poetry's singular mission is to bind love and truth together—love that desires the beloved's continued life, knotted with the truth of life's contingency—to help make us more present to each other.
In the spirit of Blake's vow of "mental fight," Grossman contends with challenges to the validity of the poetic imagination, from Adorno's maxim "No poetry after Auschwitz," to the claims of religious authority upon truth, and the ultimate challenge posed by the fact of death itself. To these challenges he responds with eloquent and rigorous arguments, drawing on wide resources of learning and his experience as master-poet and teacher. Grossman's readings of Wordsworth, Hart Crane, Paul Celan, and others focus on poems that interrogate the real or enact the hard bargains that literary representation demands. True-Love is destined to become an essential book wherever poetry and criticism sustain one another.
Frequently asked questions
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.4M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Information
Table of contents
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Poetry and Enlightenment (Kant on Orientation, Whitman on the Brooklyn Ferry, and Celan on the Meridian)
- Hard Problems in Poetry, Especially Valuing
- Why Is Death in Arcadia? Poetic Process, Literary Humanism, and the Example of Pastoral
- The Passion of Laocoön: Warfare of the Religious against the Poetic Institution
- Figuring the Real: Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper”
- On Communicative Difficulty in General and “Difficult” Poetry in Particular: The Example of Hart Crane’s “The Broken Tower”
- coda: Teaching Literature in a Discredited Civilization: A Talk for Teachers
- Notes
- Index of Names