The Offense of Poetry

by Hazard Adams

Book Overview

There is something offensive and scandalous about poetry, judging by the number of attacks on it and defenses of it written over the centuries. Poetry, Hazard Adams argues, exists to offend - not through its subject matter but through the challenges it presents to the prevailing view of what language is for. Poetry's main cultural value is its offensiveness; it should be defended as offensive.

Adams specifies four poetic offenses - gesture,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295987596
• ISBN13: 9780295987590
• Release Date: October 2007
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 8.9"