Poetry Notebook: Reflections on the Intensity of Language
Clive James is one of our finest critics and best-beloved cultural voices. He is also a prize-winning poet. Since he was first enthralled by the mysterious power of poetry, he has been a dedicated student. In fact, for him, poetry has been nothing less than the occupation of his lifetime, and in this book he presents a distillation of all he's learned about the art form that matters to him most.
With his customary wit, delightfully lucid prose style and wide-ranging knowledge, Clive James explains the difference between the innocuous stuff so prevalent today and a real poem: the latter being a work of unity that insists on being heard entire and threatens never to leave the memory. A committed formalist and an astute commentator, James examines the poems and legacies of a panorama of twentieth-century poets, from Hart Crane to Ezra Pound, from Ted Hughes to Anne Sexton. In some cases he includes second readings or rereadings from later in life--just to be sure he wasn't wrong the first time! Whether demanding that poetry must be heard beyond the world of poetry or opining on his five favorite poets (Yeats, Frost, Auden, Wilbur, and Larkin), James captures the whole truth of life's transience in this unforgettably eloquent book on how to read and appreciate modern poetry.
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[Clive James] is a unique figure, a straddler of genres and a bridger of the gaps between high and low culture. He will be seen, I think, as one of the most important and influential writers of our time.--Bryan Appleyard
This ability to tell which lines live and which only counterfeit life--call it, simply, taste--is Mr. James's great strength as a critic of poetry. His focus on the phrase and the line, rather than the large structure or the governing thought, feels like a poet's way of reading.... Mr. James's generosity of attention, his willingness to trawl through pages of verse in search of the hair-raising line, is his most appealing quality as a critic.--Adam Kirsch
The James voice is immediately recognisable. To describe it as comic does not do it justice: it might be fairer to say that the world it inhabits is prone, at most times, to a comedy of desperate sorts...James's best comedy is in the phrase-making, a craft at which he excels...James was --and remains--far more than a clever boy laughing at muddied oafs. He is a scholar who has preferred wearing his scholarship lightly.--George Szirtes
This collection of 'miniature essays' on poetry... informs and delights....
[James] writes with enthusiasm about his favorites--Yeats, Frost, Auden, Wilbur, Larkin.... Here, too, are takes on some fine poets who aren't household names: Louis MacNeice, Les Murray, Michael Longley and Stephen Edgar.... A practical, witty and trenchant assessment of 20th-century British and American poetry.--Tom Lavoie
A book bursting with quotable moments, many of them spill-your-drink funny.... Indeed, great poetry thrills James in the way roller coasters and celebrity sightings thrill other people. His enthusiasm is infectious.--Emily Donaldson
