On the Nature of Poetry

An Appraisal and Investigation of the Art Which for 4000 Years Has Distilled the Spoken Thoughts of MankindBy Kenneth Verity

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Some guides to a subject could more or less be written by any expert in that field, but a small minority are unique creations of a rare individual who has their own view. Unfortunately most of the latter types of guides fail to be good general guides. Verity's genius makes him the exception. This book is arranged in chronological chapters that trace the evolution of poetry as an art form. At the same time, each chapter gives a most practical explanation of how that aspect of poetry that it covers works and why. The book is immensely readable, hugely informative, and adds to the ability of the reader to enjoy and to create poetry. It is a classic.' "Epictetus" (Amazon review) 'The great merit of Verity's approach is that he quotes lavishly throughout, not only from the poems themselves, but also from a variety of critics' LIBRARY REVIEWS 'Of his first book of sonnets Kingsley Amis wrote 'They belong within the corpus of English poetry' Excerpts of Interview with Kenneth Verity on The Vanessa Phelps BBC Radio programme on June 2009 on the News Page (off the Home page) 'The amount of reading which underpins this book is breathtaking. The great merit of Verity's approach is that he quotes lavishly throughout, not only from the poems themselves, but also from a variety of critics ... The chapter on poetry's figurative element is a model of lucid definition and telling illustration, showing how many layers of meaning may lie behind a single word' LIBRARY REVIEWS The author writes:'The intention of this book is to examine and analyse the essential nature of the phenomenon we call poetry; to seek an understanding of the power this art form exerts over mind and heart; to comprehend its potency; and to explain its perennial ability to command the respect of mankind'. Almost a library in one volume, this unusual book, written by an accomplished poet, examines the 4000 years old phenomenon of poetry.

Poetic Mythological World Folklore Psychological

Audiobook details

GenreLiterary Classics

Length15 hrs 46 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

Publish dateAug 8, 2012

LanguageEnglish

17 METAPHYSICAL POETRY Metaphysics Donne and the Metaphysical Poets The Wider Dimension The Augustan Age

27 METAPHYSICAL POETRY Metaphysics Donne and the Metaphysical Poets The Wider Dimension The Augustan Age

38 IDEALS AND DREAMS The Romantic Movement Blake, Wordsworth, Byron, Keats Shelley, Coleridge The Post-Romantic Period The Victorian Poets Tennyson, Browning, Arnold, Clough, Swinburne German Poetry – Influence in Europe Gerard Manley Hopkins

4Making Poetry Imagination Interpretation Translation The Breath of Creativity

516 THE NATURE OF POETRY Aesthetics: Beauty; Imitation; Expression; Form Attitudes to Form Temporality Eternity Master Poets: Homer, Hesiod, Virgil, Petrarch, Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Hopkins, Yeats, Eliot Ambiguity The Critic Conclusion

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6Archilochus of Paros Callinus of Ephesus Semonides of Amorgos Hipponax of Ephesus Tyrtaeus of Sparta Mimnermus of Colophon Solon of Athens Phocylides of Miletus Xenophanes of Colophon Theognis of Megara Terpander of Antissa (Lesbos) Bacchylides of Ceos

7(1) material content; (2) form; and (3) spirit.

8443-430 429 423 413 Late Classical Period 404 331 Hellenistic Period 323-281

9perpetuate these stories.

10Translations by courtesy of Thames & Hudson

11Georgics, Book II, Translated by Dryden

12Translated by Bishop Nicholas Ridley (c1500-55)

13We

14Translated by Kevin Crossley-Holland

15l066 1096-99 Gothic Period

16From 1267

17Pearl

18Book V, lines 1093-9 (Skeat’s 1901 edition)