Cover of The Life of Poetry

The Life of Poetry

Observing that poetry is a natural part of our pastimes and rituals, Muriel Rukeyser opposes elitist attitudes and confronts Americans' fear of feeling. Multicultural and interdisciplinary, this collection of essays and speeches makes an irrefutable case for the centrality of poetry in American life.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 256 pages

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These suit anyone who liked The Life of Poetry. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry Shares poetry, nonfiction, poetics
  2. Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry Shares poetry, poetics, nonfiction
  3. A Muriel Rukeyser Reader Shares poetry, poetics, nonfiction
  4. Best Words, Best Order: Essays on Poetry Shares poetry, poetics, nonfiction

“People who read The Life of Poetry tend to reach for these next.”

  1. The Art of the Poetic Line
  2. The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as Assertive Force and Contradiction
  3. Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft
  4. The Art of Description: World into Word

“If you want more of the same (literary criticism about crafts), start with these.”

  1. How Does a Poem Mean?
  2. The Weather of Words: Poetic Inventions
  3. 52 Ways Of Looking At A Poem: or How Reading Modern Poetry Can Change Your Life
  4. The Albertine Workout

“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. American Women Poets in the 21st Century: Where Lyric Meets Language
  2. Leaping Poetry: An Idea with Poems and Translations
  3. On Poetry and Craft: Selected Prose
  4. The H.D. Book

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Growing Up Poor: A Literary Anthology
  2. Thomas and Beulah
  3. Chicana Falsa
  4. In Flanders Fields: And Other Poems of the First World War