Obbligati: Essays in Criticism"The proper role of criticism [is] as a musical obbligato; that is, a counterpart that must constantly strive to move in strict harmony with and intellectual counterpoint to its subject, and remain always subordinate to the text upon which it presumes to comment." With this declaration, Hecht sets forth the manifesto of this graceful group of essays, implicitly chiding today's academic critics who apply theories to texts. Hecht is particularly elegant and eloquent on contemporary American poetry, from the tension between truth and fiction in Robert Lowell's autobiographical lyrics to the "musicianship" of Richard Wilbur. Hecht's best essay evokes the unique poetic voice of Elizabeth Bishop, and he is equally perspicacious on Frost, Auden, and Dickinson. An extended essay on Marvell's "The Garden" and Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" offers an unusual comparative reading that captures the energies and langours of both poems. This book offers literary essays of rare quality. The writing throughout is a model of form suiting function--the lucid exposition of well-chosen ideas. |
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Page 231
... death at the highest moment of its experience , it might rather be the most intense sense of life , whereas the return to the transitory world might be a return to dying and to death . Both poems depend upon a deliberately ambiguous ...
... death at the highest moment of its experience , it might rather be the most intense sense of life , whereas the return to the transitory world might be a return to dying and to death . Both poems depend upon a deliberately ambiguous ...
Page 232
... death . The association with death I think is clearest at the end , when the sundial is men- tioned : by which both bees and men compute their time , as the mortuary tone of sundial inscriptions solicits us to do . In the first stanza ...
... death . The association with death I think is clearest at the end , when the sundial is men- tioned : by which both bees and men compute their time , as the mortuary tone of sundial inscriptions solicits us to do . In the first stanza ...
Page 245
... death and death into life ) bring us , in the fourth and fifth stanzas , to the height of the ecstasy with a division of the faculties so severely in- sisted on as to amount almost to bilocation . What has gone before ( not least of all ...
... death and death into life ) bring us , in the fourth and fifth stanzas , to the height of the ecstasy with a division of the faculties so severely in- sisted on as to amount almost to bilocation . What has gone before ( not least of all ...
Contents
The Pathetic Fallacy | 3 |
On W H Audens In Praise of Limestone | 27 |
Othello | 51 |
Copyright | |
6 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
answer Antonio appears Auden Baroque Bassanio beauty beginning believe bird blood libel body Brabantio called casket Cassio character Christ Christian comedy course critics death declares Desdemona dramatic Elizabeth Bishop Emily Dickinson essay exhibit eyes fact fallacy father feelings garden Gobbo grace hath heart heaven human Iago imagination innocent Jacob Jessica Jesus Jewish Jews Keats Keats's kind Laban landscape Launcelot letter lines Lord Lowell Lowell's means mercy metaphor mind moral Moriscos nature never oath offer Othello passage pathetic fallacy play poem poet poet's poetry Portia prodigal Pulcinella question regard remarks rich Richard Wilbur riddle Robert Lowell Roman Ruskin Saint scene seems sense Shakespeare Shylock song sort soul speech spirit stanza story symbolic tell temple Testament thee things thou thought tion truth turn unto usura Venice virtue W. H. Auden Wilbur William of Norwich word