The Music of What Happens: Poems, Poets, Critics

by Helen Vendler

Book Overview

Helen Vendler has become one of our most trusted companions in reading poetry. Among critics today she has an unrivaled ability to show--lucidly and invitingly--just what a poem does. Insight and wit distinguish these essays, in which Vendler elucidates the function of criticism as well as different critical methods and styles. Poets commented on range from Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz to Silvia Plath, James Merrill, and Amy Clampitt.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674591534
• ISBN13: 9780674591530
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 486 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful writing about beautiful writing.

Is there any critic of fiction or poetry better than Helen Vendler? I always avoided poetry, thinking it the literary equivalent of green vegetables. But in these essays, Vendler calmly and precisely explains what works about a certain poem. Vendler's close reading and teacherly - but never condescending - voice made me want to read more poems, yes, but more than anything, they made me want to read more Vendler. Vendler's interpretive theory would probably be criticised as hopelessly 'undertheorized' new criticism, but that is part of its charm. In her way, Vendler has convinced me of the value and beauty of literary creation.