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 303
... mind must give way to a mind of refuse , for images are never complete , and mind is never pure . The voice , therefore , may never be pure , and neither may song . The oral tradition to which Yeats belonged was one in which , as ...
... mind must give way to a mind of refuse , for images are never complete , and mind is never pure . The voice , therefore , may never be pure , and neither may song . The oral tradition to which Yeats belonged was one in which , as ...
Page 348
... mind . It is the greatest desire of the mind to be silent and proud . But time beats and batters it . The measure of our moments , time marks our strife , making a plot of our move- ment toward the final , fatal dominant X. Time makes ...
... mind . It is the greatest desire of the mind to be silent and proud . But time beats and batters it . The measure of our moments , time marks our strife , making a plot of our move- ment toward the final , fatal dominant X. Time makes ...
Page 392
... mind , or spirit which is primary and takes over the initiative and the func- tions which had once been the prerogatives of deity , " as Abrams writes , Wordsworth offers a fine example of what " we can justifi- ably call Romantic ...
... mind , or spirit which is primary and takes over the initiative and the func- tions which had once been the prerogatives of deity , " as Abrams writes , Wordsworth offers a fine example of what " we can justifi- ably call Romantic ...
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