The Soul Is a Stranger in This World
Essays on Poets and Poetry
- Arts & Literature
- Publisher: Cascade Books (Wipf and Stock)
- Published: 2020
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Publisher's Description
The Soul Is a Stranger in This World is a timely examination of some of the best modern and contemporary poets and a trenchant defense of poetry as a narrative, musical, and theological art. While it is common today to view the poet as a revolutionary, who breaks old forms in the name of aesthetic and political freedom, this volume begins with the classical view of the poet "as a man speaking to men," as Wordsworth put it. Poetry may challenge and shock, but it also consoles, probing the contours of the human soul in a broken world. Collected from essays and reviews first published in The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, Books and Culture, First Things, and other outlets, the volume traces these concerns in the work of modern masters such as Rilke and Eliot, avant-garde exemplars like Andre du Bouchet and Basil Bunting, and contemporary writers such as Dana Gioia and Franz Wright.
Endorsements (2)
“Micah Mattix is one of a handful of contemporary writers who have restored the art of literary criticism to its proper scope and style so that once again it serves to illuminate the meaning of works of art, to suggest their connection to the full breadth of knowledge and human experience, and to keep in mind—always—the one question every reader wants to know: is this poem any good? Bringing together essays on myriad subjects, Mattix's new book is a reliable guide to both the great poets now among us and to those eccentric figures who may be less appealing to the lay reader but whose work nonetheless has something substantial to teach us. . . . The result is a critic of foremost authority who is helping to reclaim for poetry that public, intellectual, and spiritual role it ought always to play in a decent civilization.”
“Sharp-eyed, allergic to cant, catholic in his tastes, occasionally sardonic, blessedly sane, Micah Mattix is one of the best critics of poetry now at work.”
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