Lives of the Poets

by Michael Schmidt

Book Overview

National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist In this stunning volume of epic breadth, Michael Schmidt connects the lives and works of more than 300 poets over the last 700 years--spanning distant... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375706046
• ISBN13: 9780375706042
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 992 Pages
• Weight: 1.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.7" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

The buck stops here

A great value, this book contains lots of fax 'n' info about the important and not-so-famous poets. Schmidt combines chronology with history and attempts a kind of psychobiography or mentalistic theory to try to get inside the minds of the poets. This approach, though it strikes me as somewhat culturally German, is I think quite effective. Schmidt is not a scholar but an enthusiast of poetry whose love of the material is overwhelming. And I also think Schmidt is an excellent teacher. He mentions that Spenser was highly influential up through the first half of the twentieth century, and from my recent browsing in the tradition, I could confirm this statement for myself. He also points out that Shelley is a great guide for budding poets, and I think that this is the kind of specific generosity that brings out the best in Shelley. Recently I've been reading Dryden's poetry and prose on the strength of Schmidt's recommendations. As for one reviewer's umbrage at the description of Spenser as small hands, etc., well so what? It's just--gasp--friendly irony at best, Germanic sarcasm at worst. Nobody thinks any less of Samuel Johnson for being ole blood 'n' guts Dr. Johnson with big appetites and, like Schmidt, strong opinions--but unlike Schmidt, smack in the middle of the English tradition, probably never even spent a weekend in Cabo San Lucas. So there!

Review in Progress

Should I review a book I've barely read one-fourth of? I guess I have to, because it'll take me forever to finish it, and when I do finish it, I'll probably start over again. I'm treasuring every word. Schmidt's range of knowledge is so broad, his opinions so generous, his love of poetry so palpable in every word. And I'm learning so much. I'm a poet and a teacher...but I'd never heard of Richard Rolle, knew next to nothing about Joseph Langland or John Skelton or Thomas Campion (about whom I've just finished reading).

A bedside book for browsing with your favorite poetry

This is not so much a book for reading (who could sustain the thought of such a long term concentration for pleasure) but for browsing. I began by looking up some of my favorite poets and reading about then, then reading some of the work of their contemporires that Schmidt describes. In other words, the strength of the book for me was that impetus to rediscover the lesserknown poems of poets I've always liked and the concomitant discover of new poets with whom I was unfamiliar. That's why I say it's a bedside book; you can browse in it while snuggled up and then jot down some new poetry to check out on your next visit to the library. A worthwhile investment for the library of any scholar or intellectual, and especially strong on the poets of the first 2/3 of the twentieth century.

Lives, poets, history, and a merry romp through it all!

Litcrit, that sad and weary and so often maligned and detested human endeavor, has produced a flicker of luminous hope in Michael Schmidt's latest and probably magnum opus. Like Samuel Johnson's long-previous work of the same title, to wit: Schmidt aspires to venerate with his book, this is not only a joyous adulation of the greatest and grandest poets in English from the language's emergence out of the melange of Norman French, vernacular Latin, and myriad Celtic and other influences, but also an absolutely fascinating, endlessly readable, and even raucous romp through the history of poetry in English. As a professor of English, I'm always reluctant to assign readings in criticism because students, already recalcitrant or even hostile toward the literature itself, will turn and walk away, perhaps forever, when faced with the pedantic and pedagogical masturbation which is way too much litcrit. Maybe Schmidt's work will change that; I do intend to use a bit or two in the coming semester. The essays are generally fairly brief or, if longer, are sufficiently well-written to engage even reluctant readers. Unlike most histories, Schmidt with an amazingly multicultural, non-canonical insight, includes American, Australian, Caribbean, female and other minority poets such as the Countess of Pembroke; Isabella Whitney, Edward Brathwaite; and Derek Walcott. Truly an amazing book.

More than Biography

This book is nearly 1000 pages long. Nearly every one of these pages has something to commend it to anyone interested in poetry. (In fact, as I page through, I can't seem to find one that doesn't.) Schmidt is eclectic in his selection, as one might expect from the editor of the distinguished PN Review. He draws interesting material from throughout the English speaking world and hones in, with remarkable intelligence and good taste, on what makes these poets, and their poems, worthy of our attention. He is good and always interesting on biography, which takes second place to the poems. Schmidt gets it right by focussing, when he writes on the poems themselves, on rhythms, meters, syntax, diction, and what it feels like to read them well. He is generous in many ways, to the poets, to their poems, and to his readers. I hope they are many.