The Truth of Poetry: Tensions in Modern Poetry from Baudelaire to the 1960s

By Michael Hamburger

Book Overview

First published in 1982, The Truth of Poetry attempts to answer a seemingly simple question: What kind of truth does poetry offer in modern times? Michael Hamburger's answer to this question ranges over the last century of European and American poetry, and the result is a phenomenology of modern poetry rather than a history of appreciations of individual poets. Stressing the tensions and conflicts in and behind the work of every major poet of the period, he considers the many different possibilities open to poets since Baudelaire. This expansive work of analysis will be of interest to students of English literature, poetry enthusiasts and literary historians.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1032198850
• ISBN13: 9781032198859
• Release Date: January 2022
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 355 Pages

Customer Reviews

Indispensable study of modern poetry

Michael Hamburger is one of those academic writers you just want to call up and thank. He seems to delight in making complex concepts plain, but without dumbing them down. Anyone who finds twentieth-century poetry "difficult" or irritating or considers it grossly inferior to the lyrical work that came before it should read this book. Hamburger narrates the century-long story of poetry wrestling with itself as it tries to find new ways to make meaning, and confronts (or evades) the political, philosophical and psychological developments of modern life. His observations on the use of "personae" and the problematic distinction between public and private poetry are particularly valuable, as is the breadth of this study which isn't limited to poetry written in English. Unlike so many academics, Hamburger recongnises that plenty of the works influencing a poet's practice were not even written in the same language (think of the French Symbolists' influence - it even got as far as Australia). Hamburger seems to be an ardent modernist, but he doesn't let his enthusiasm blind him to modernism's failings and contradictions - indeed, they're some of things that make it so interesting. His analysis of the work of several canonical modern poets is refreshingly evenhanded. His insightful exploration of Pound and Eliot is superb, particularly the way in which he relates Eliot's poetry to his philosophy and criticism. Those crouched at Eliot's feet might do well to look up for five minutes and read it.