Combining poetry with divination, this collection resurrects the ancient Greek art of Rhapsodomancy, or divining one's fortune or destiny through the use of poetry or verse. Harkening back to antiquity, when Polyhymnia—the muse of sacred poetry—and Calliope—the muse of epic poetry—were invoked for guidance, each page of this anthology contains three poetic excerpts, chosen for their oracular wisdom.
Including examples from Russia's greatest poets, Michael Wachtel draws on three centuries of verse, from the beginnings of secular literature in the eighteenth century to the present day. The first part of his book is devoted to concepts such as versification, poetic language and tradition. In the second part he examines the ode, the elegy, love poetry, nature poetry and patriotic verse.
Using Poetry Across the Curriculum: Learning to Love Language
This second edition of Using Poetry Across the Curriculum: Learning to Love Language offers a comprehensive list of poetry anthologies, poetic picture books, and poetic prose works in a wide variety of subject areas. While it maintains the original edition's focus on ideas and resource lists for integration of poetry into all areas of the curriculum, it is thoroughly revised to cover current issues in education and the wealth of new poetry books available.
Barfield discusses poetry's meaning in terms of both his personal experience and objective standards of criticism. One of the reviewers called Barfield 'a product of his time' and suggested that now he's useful only for practical use, not for contemporary scientists and theorists. I have to disagree, and that's why I'm writing this review.
Romanticism and Transcendentalism, 1820-1865 (Research Guide to American Literature)
An engaging, full-color illustrated guide to the romantic and transcendentalist era in American literature, this updated volume provides important information on the foundations of romantic thought, romanticism and the new nation, gothic romance and sentimentalism, transcendentalism, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville, and romanticism and poetic voice. New to this edition is a section discussing American idealism.
