After the Heavenly Tune: English Poetry and the Aspiration to SongAfter the Heavenly Tune offers an expansive answer to the basic question central to the history of poetry and poetics: what do poets mean when they write "I sing?" Berley's chapters on Shakespeare and Milton unfold the remarkable development of these two "speculative musical poetics" who are central to the history of English poetry. And in his last two chapters on romanticism and modernism, he draws an intriguing line from Wordsworth to Stevens, in which the aspiration to song becomes a dazzling means of exploring, scrutinizing, and redefining the burdens and achievements--poetic, philosophical, social, and personal--for individual poets in their times. After the Heavenly Tune offers not only groundbreaking studies of The Merchant of Venice and Milton's theory of prophecy, but also compelling new readings of classical and medieval literary theory, the burdens of romanticism, and the resolutions of modernism. This work will appeal to a broad audience: Renaissance, classical, and romantic literary scholars; philosophers; musicologists; theologians; and general readers interested in English poetry and Literary Studies. |
From inside the book
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Page 1
... actual musician , a singer who sang to the accompaniment of a musical instrument - Orpheus , for instance . But whereas for Homer poetry was still some form of actual song , likely a melodic and rhythmic chanting , it was not for Virgil ...
... actual musician , a singer who sang to the accompaniment of a musical instrument - Orpheus , for instance . But whereas for Homer poetry was still some form of actual song , likely a melodic and rhythmic chanting , it was not for Virgil ...
Page 47
... actual music and poetry ( musica instrumentalis ) because he did not consider the human soul ( musica humana ) discordant : By the ears , as I have already said , the soul receives the echoes of that incomparable music , by which it is ...
... actual music and poetry ( musica instrumentalis ) because he did not consider the human soul ( musica humana ) discordant : By the ears , as I have already said , the soul receives the echoes of that incomparable music , by which it is ...
Page 48
... actual music but by speculative study of music one cannot hear . For Ficino , actual music retains its power to elevate the soul ( by penetrating the ear ) . Plato , in contrast , attributes power neither to music nor to the ear but ...
... actual music but by speculative study of music one cannot hear . For Ficino , actual music retains its power to elevate the soul ( by penetrating the ear ) . Plato , in contrast , attributes power neither to music nor to the ear but ...
Contents
ONE Platos True Musician and the Trope | 27 |
Beyond Aristotelian Praxis | 36 |
Platonic SelfRule and Neoplatonic Frenzy | 45 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
ability achieve Adorno ancient cycle Aristotle aspiration to song assert become Blake Blue Guitar Christian claim to song conception conceptual metaphor condition of music confront desire discord divine inspiration Donoghue early poems earthly ennobling Harmony Ficino God's hear heaven heavenly tune Hesiod Homer human Il Penseroso imagination Jessica John Keats John Milton Keats Keats's Kerrigan L'Allegro language lative Lorenzo Lorenzo's speech M. H. Abrams Maimonides means Merchant Merchant of Venice merriment merry metaphor Milton mind modern Muses nature Neoplatonic Nightingale one's Oxford Penseroso Phaedrus philosophic Plato play poet poet's poetic song Portia practical music Prelude Princeton prophecy prophetic Pythagoras reattuning relationship Renaissance rhetorical romantic says Shakespeare Shelley Shylock Sidney silence sing singer Socrates soul sounds speak speculative music Stevens Stevens's sweet theory things thou thought tion trans trope of song truth Vendler verse voice Wallace Stevens words Wordsworth writes Yeats York