Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Advanced
Title details for A Little History of Poetry by John Carey - Available

A Little History of Poetry

by John Carey
ebook
Read a sample Read a sample

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 world's 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 world's poems—and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.

Expand title description text
Series: Little Histories Publisher: Yale University Press

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780300252521
  • Release date: March 1, 2020

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780300252521
  • File size: 2912 KB
  • Release date: March 1, 2020
Loading
Loading

Formats

OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Fiction Poetry

Languages

English

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 world's 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 world's poems—and the elusive quality that makes them all the more enticing.

Expand title description text
Fiction Poetry