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
Results 1-3 of 69
Page 90
... play is centered : what does it mean to be " merry ? " Merchant is a play about conflicting attempts to be " merry " — and the antipodal worldviews on which these attempts are based . The crux of the play is that Antonio and Shylock ...
... play is centered : what does it mean to be " merry ? " Merchant is a play about conflicting attempts to be " merry " — and the antipodal worldviews on which these attempts are based . The crux of the play is that Antonio and Shylock ...
Page 121
... play , " as Rabkin has observed : " one element or another in the play can come to seem like the center of the play's values and the focus of its allegiances is paradoxically the source of both its inexhaust- ible complexity and its ...
... play , " as Rabkin has observed : " one element or another in the play can come to seem like the center of the play's values and the focus of its allegiances is paradoxically the source of both its inexhaust- ible complexity and its ...
Page 123
... play . Siding with Jessica , however , one does not know where one stands , for one may feel a particular sympathy for everyone . One may see that every individual may have a desire to let music creep in her ear , may put her trust in a ...
... play . Siding with Jessica , however , one does not know where one stands , for one may feel a particular sympathy for everyone . One may see that every individual may have a desire to let music creep in her ear , may put her trust in a ...
Contents
ONE Platos True Musician and the Trope | 27 |
Beyond Aristotelian Praxis | 36 |
Platonic SelfRule and Neoplatonic Frenzy | 45 |
Copyright | |
21 other sections not shown
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