The place of Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) in European literature is assured, and his significance for the development of German philosophy widely acknowledged. Here the focus is more specifically upon his poetics: a body of reflections on the nature of poetry and the meaning of the poet's vocation. These are found in poems and letters, in difficult (and often fragmentary) theoretical writings, and -- in the case of the 'Pindar Fragments' -- texts in which the distinction between poetry and theoretical reflection seems to be overcome. Although Hölderlin's poetics is considered from various points of view, the themes that emerge most frequently are Hölderlin's notion of a 'poetic law' or 'poetic logic', and his conception of tragedy and of what might be called the 'anti-tragic'. Also included is a new translation of Hölderlin's 'Notes' on Sophocles, which are here provided with a commentary. Charles Lewis received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Cambridge University. He has taught at Princeton University, and held an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship at the Free University, Berlin.

Wallace Stevens was not only one of America's outstanding modernist poets but also a successful insurance lawyer--a fact that continues to intrigue many readers. Though Stevens tried hard to separate his poetry from his profession, legal theorist Thomas Grey shows that he did not ultimately succeed. After stressing how little connection appears on the surface between the two parts of Stevens's life, Grey argues that in its pragmatic account of human reasoning, the poetry distinctively illuminates the workings of the law. In this important extension of the recent law-and-literature movement, Grey reveals Stevens as a philosophical poet and implicitly a pragmatist legal theorist, who illustrates how human thought proceeds through "assertion, qualification, and qualified reassertion," and how reason and passion fuse together in the act of interpretation. Above all, Stevens's poetry proves a liberating antidote to the binary logic that is characteristic of legal theory: one side of a case is right, the other wrong; conduct is either lawful or unlawful. At the same time as he discovers in Stevens a pragmatist philosopher of law, Grey offers a strikingly new perspective on the poetry itself. In the poems that develop Stevens's "reality-imagination complex"--poems often criticized as remote, apolitical, and hermetic--Grey finds a body of work that not only captivates the reader but also provides a unique instrument for scrutinizing the thought processes of lawyers and judges in their exercise of social power.

Presents poems which explore the metaphysical and the ordinary, including "New Heaven, New Earth" in which a person attempts to find a path through dense woods during a blinding blizzard

The instant New York Times bestseller featured on NPR's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon! B. J. Novak (bestselling author of The Book With No Pictures) described this groundbreaking poetry collection as "Smart and sweet, wild and wicked, brilliantly funny--it's everything a book for kids should be." Lauded by critics as a worthy heir to such greats as Silverstein, Seuss, Nash and Lear, Harris's hilarious debut molds wit and wordplay, nonsense and oxymoron, and visual and verbal sleight-of-hand in masterful ways that make you look at the world in a whole new wonderfully upside-down way. With enthusiastic endorsements from bestselling luminaries such as Lemony Snicket, Judith Viorst, Andrea Beaty, and many others, this entirely unique collection offers a surprise around every corner. Adding to the fun: Lane Smith, bestselling creator of beloved hits like It's a Book and The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales, has spectacularly illustrated this extraordinary collection with nearly one hundred pieces of appropriately absurd art. It's a mischievous match made in heaven! "Ridiculous, nonsensical, peculiar, outrageous, possibly deranged--and utterly, totally, absolutely delicious. Read it! Immediately!" --Judith Viorst, bestselling author of Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1721 edition. Excerpt: ... That is, it will appear in every part, tho' differently, throughout the work of a great and true Poet. It is confess'd, that in the greatest poets the height of genius does not shine equally in all parts of the poem, as is plain from the immortal Homer, Virgil, and Milton. Homer himself has been obferv'd by Horace sometimes to nod; and it is obvious to every judicious reader, that Virgil has not every where the fame vivacity or force; and it is equally plain, that Milton, for many lines together, is far from being so elevated and lofty ( I will not say flat and low) as in the general performance of his poem; but then all these three great poets shine out again in their own exalted lustre, which justifies what our Essay affirms: Which, though sometimes behind a cloud retird, Breaks out again, and is by all admir'd. I know my lord Roscommon, in his Essay upon translated verse, would needs have it, that the flatnesses, if I may so call them, or negligences which are found in some of Virgiss verses, were in that Poet a studied art, and not a defect; for thus he fays. Not thus our heroes of the former days Defervd and gaind their" neverfading bays; For I mi flake, or far the greatest part, Of 'what some call neglect, was study'd art. Wloen Virgil seems to trifle in a line, 'Its like a warningpiece, .which gives the sign, To wake your fancy, and prepare your sight, To teach the noble height of some unusual flight.. But But as this is only my lord's particular opinion, and will hold good in defence of Homey and Milton, as well as of Virgil; so I.presume it is not entirely to be depended upon; and Horace gives a more natural, and, if I mistake not, a more just excuse for these three great poets. Of ere in tamo fas est obrepere somnum. In so great...