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. |
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Page 23
... attempts nei- ther to assign ideas to poets or to trace the history of ideas . While it addresses these matters , it focuses on the spectacu- lar ways poets continually harass and reconceive the trope of song . In its attempt to analyze ...
... attempts nei- ther to assign ideas to poets or to trace the history of ideas . While it addresses these matters , it focuses on the spectacu- lar ways poets continually harass and reconceive the trope of song . In its attempt to analyze ...
Page 144
... attempt to reattune himself . The authority of the poet as singer is always under exquisite , edifying scrutiny in ... attempted and grandly achieved . Milton renders the process of his reattuning like no other poet . His speculative ...
... attempt to reattune himself . The authority of the poet as singer is always under exquisite , edifying scrutiny in ... attempted and grandly achieved . Milton renders the process of his reattuning like no other poet . His speculative ...
Page 284
... attempt what so far he has not been able to do . He must be honest about his desire to roll the uni- verse into one ball , to turn it into the round music of a perfect poem . " Cino " ends with a song within the poem : " I have sung ...
... attempt what so far he has not been able to do . He must be honest about his desire to roll the uni- verse into one ball , to turn it into the round music of a perfect poem . " Cino " ends with a song within the poem : " I have sung ...
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