A Little History of Poetry
3.75 (423 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback Little Histories English
By (author) John Carey


Categories: Poetry Anthologies (various Poets) Literary Studies: General Literary Studies: Poetry & Poets


Description
A vital, engaging, and hugely enjoyable guide to poetry, from ancient times to the present, by one of our greatest champions of literature--selected as the literature book of the year by the London Times

"[A] fizzing, exhilarating book."-Sebastian Faulks, Sunday Times, London

"Delightful."-New York Times Book Review

What is poetry? If music is sound organized in a particular way, poetry is a way of organizing language. It is language made special so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work-over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. But this Little History is about some that have not.

John Carey tells the stories behind the worlds greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly four thousand years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our views of the world, such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Whitman, and Yeats. He also looks at more recent poets, like Derek Walcott, Marianne Moore, and Maya Angelou, who have started to question what makes a poem "great" in the first place.

For readers both young and old, this little history shines a light for readers on the richness of the worlds poems-and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.


Product details

Format Paperback | 320 pages
Dimensions 140 x 216 x 35.56mm | 408.23g
Publication date 09 Mar 2021
Publisher Yale University Press
Publication City/Country United States
Language English
Edition Statement Reprint
Illustrations note 40 b-w illus.
ISBN10 0300255039
ISBN13 9780300255034
Bestsellers rank 67,040