Professing Poetry
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the crossroads of criticism and celebration, Professing Poetry stands as one of the most candid and illuminating examinations of the poetic craft by a poet who lived it — John Wain, himself a formidable figure of the British literary scene, presents a rich collection of essays and lectures that argue passionately for the enduring relevance of poetry in modern life. Drawing on his tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry (1973–1978), Wain chronicles his engagements with poets from Samuel Johnson to Thomas Hardy, from William Blake to contemporaries of his own era, mapping the contours of the English poetic tradition with both scholarly rigour and personal conviction. Wain's prose is animated by a rare dual authority: that of the practising poet and the serious critic, resulting in a voice that is at once accessible and intellectually demanding. He illustrates how poetry is not a relic of academic study but a living, breathing mode of human understanding, one that demands both the reader's and the poet's fullest engagement. Steeped in the tradition of the English man of letters, this work invites us to reconsider what it truly means — and costs — to dedicate a life to verse.
Author: John Wain
Format: Hardback
Genre: Poetry
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Chipped and worn with some minor damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
At the crossroads of criticism and celebration, Professing Poetry stands as one of the most candid and illuminating examinations of the poetic craft by a poet who lived it — John Wain, himself a formidable figure of the British literary scene, presents a rich collection of essays and lectures that argue passionately for the enduring relevance of poetry in modern life. Drawing on his tenure as Oxford Professor of Poetry (1973–1978), Wain chronicles his engagements with poets from Samuel Johnson to Thomas Hardy, from William Blake to contemporaries of his own era, mapping the contours of the English poetic tradition with both scholarly rigour and personal conviction. Wain's prose is animated by a rare dual authority: that of the practising poet and the serious critic, resulting in a voice that is at once accessible and intellectually demanding. He illustrates how poetry is not a relic of academic study but a living, breathing mode of human understanding, one that demands both the reader's and the poet's fullest engagement. Steeped in the tradition of the English man of letters, this work invites us to reconsider what it truly means — and costs — to dedicate a life to verse.