In this introductory episode, I discuss the purpose and direction of POETRY UP CLOSE — simply put, to “close read” modern poetry in the New Critical style to help listeners gain a more meaningful purchase on a given poem. Also, I provide a brief background on what ‘New Criticism’ is, as well as some thoughts concerning the AP English Literature & Composition exam and its relation to this style of criticism.


Show Notes available on our website: https://poetryupclose.wordpress.com


Suggested Reading on the New Criticism:

Brooks, Cleanth. The Well Wrought Urn. Norfolk: New Directions, 1941.

Brooks, Cleanth, and Robert Penn Warren. Understanding Poetry. New York: Holt, 1938.

Empson, William. Seven Types of Ambiguity. 2nd ed. London: Chatto and Windus, 1947.

Graff, Gerald, Professing Literature, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987.

Ransom, John Crowe. The New Criticism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1947.

Richards, I. A. Practical Criticism. 1929. Reprint, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1964.

Wellek, René. A History of Modern Criticism, 1750–1950. Volume 6: American Criticism, 1900–1950. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

Wimsatt, W. K., Jr., and Monroe C. Beardsley. "The Intentional Fallacy." In The Verbal Icon. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1954.