Why should a poet feel the need to be original? What is the relationship between genius and apprenticeship? James Fenton examines some of the most intriguing questions behind the making of the art - issues of creativity and the 'earning' of success, of judgement, tutorage, rivalry, and ambition. He goes on to consider the juvenilia of Wilfred Owen, the 'scarred' lines of Philip Larkin, the inheritance of imperialism, and issues of 'constituency' in Seamus Heaney. He looks too at Marianne Moore, Elizabeth Bishop, Sylvia Plath, and their contrasting 'feminisms', at D. H. Lawrence, 'welcoming the dark'. The climax of the book is his superb and extensive discussion of Auden.

About the Author
James Fenton is one of the country's most acclaimed poets and author of The Memory of War and Children in Exile (1983) and the Whitbread Prize winning Out of Danger (1994). Formerly a critic for New Statesman and The Times, and for many years a far east correspondent for The Independent, Fenton succeeded Seamus Heaney as the Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1994.

Reviews
Anyone put off poetry by university courses...would do well to spend an evening or two with James Fenton's collection of essays * Daily Telegraph *
His formidable intelligence, elegance and dry wit make this a rare beast: a collection of poetry criticism that richly rewards rereading. * The Sunday Times *
The mind that guides this pen is warm and insightful, and even occasionally right...not a word is wasted, not a thought ill-expressed * Independent on Sunday *



Book Information
ISBN 9780199261390
Author James Fenton
Format Paperback
Page Count 276
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 215mm * 138mm * 15mm