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Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form
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Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form Hardback - 2007

by Helen Vendler

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The fundamental difference between rhetoric and poetry, according to Yeats, is that rhetoric is the expression of ones quarrels with others while poetry is the expression of ones quarrel with oneself. Through exquisite attention to outer and inner forms, Vendler explores the most inventive reaches of the poets mind.

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From the publisher

"An intellectual feast."
--John Leonard, Harper's Magazine

A monumental study reveals the patient and meticulous labor behind the Irish Nobel laureate's immaculate poetic craft.

The fundamental difference between rhetoric and poetry, according to Yeats, is that rhetoric is the expression of one's quarrels with others while poetry is the expression (and sometimes the resolution) of one's quarrel with oneself. This is where Helen Vendler's Our Secret Discipline begins. Through exquisite attention to outer and inner forms, Vendler explores the most inventive reaches of the poet's mind. This book is a space-clearing gesture, an attempt to write about lyric forms in Yeats in unprecedented and comprehensive ways. The secret discipline of the poet is his vigilant attention to forms--whether generic, structural, or metrical. Yeats explores the potential of such forms to give shape and local habitation to volatile thoughts and feelings.

Helen Vendler remains focused on questions of singular importance: Why did Yeats cast his poems into the widely differing forms they ultimately took? Can we understand Yeats's poetry better if we pay attention to its form, both its internal architectonic and its external organization into conventional verse structures? Chapters of the book take up many Yeatsian ventures, such as the sonnet, the lyric sequence, paired poems, blank verse, and others. With elegance and precision, Vendler offers brilliant insights into the creative process and speculates on Yeats's aims as he writes and rewrites some of the most famous poems in modern literature.

Details

  • Title Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form
  • Author Helen Vendler
  • Binding Hardback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Pages 448
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Belknap Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
  • Publication date November 29, 2007
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Index, Table of Contents
  • ISBN 9780674026957 / 0674026950
  • Weight 1.6 lbs (0.73 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.38 x 6.68 x 1.11 in (23.83 x 16.97 x 2.82 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 20th Century
    • Cultural Region: British
  • Category Literature - Classics / Criticism
  • Library of Congress subjects English literature - Irish authors - History, Yeats, W. B - Criticism and interpretation
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2007023744
  • Dewey Decimal Code 821.8

Media reviews

Citations

  • Library Journal, 11/15/2007, Page 60
  • New York Review of Books, 04/03/2008, Page 37
  • New York Times Book Review, 05/11/2008, Page 33
  • Publishers Weekly, 08/20/2007, Page 56
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Our secret discipline
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Our secret discipline

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Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form

by Helen Vendler

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Volume, measuring approximately 7" x 9.75", is bound in gilt-lettered quarter black cloth and black paper-covered boards. Book displays light shelfwear, with very small dent to bottom edge of front board. Binding is firm. Interior is clean and bright. Fine dust jacket is preserved in mylar cover. xvii/428 pages."The fundamental difference between rhetoric and poetry, according to Yeats, is that rhetoric is the expression of one's quarrels with others while poetry is the and sometimes the resolution) of one's quarrel with oneself. This is where Helen Vendler's "Our Secret Discipline" begins. Through exquisite attention to outer and inner forms, Vendler explores the most inventive reaches of the poet's mind. This book is a space-clearing gesture, an attempt to write about lyric forms in Yeats in unprecedented and comprehensive ways. The secret discipline of the poet is his vigilant attention to forms--whether generic, structural, or metrical. Yeats explores the potential of such forms to give shape and… Read more
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Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form

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Belknap Press, 2007. FIRST EDITION. Hardcover. Like New/Like New. First Edition, First Printing. Not price-clipped. Published by Belknap Press, 2007. Octavo. Hardcover. Book is like new. Dust jacket is like new. 100% positive feedback. 30 day money back guarantee. NEXT DAY SHIPPING! Excellent customer service. Please email with any questions. All books packed carefully and ship with free delivery confirmation/tracking. All books come with free bookmarks. Ships from Sag Harbor, New York.
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Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and Lyric Form

by Vendler, Helen

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