Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Bishop, Merrill (Bollingen series ; The A.W. Mellon lectures in the fine arts ; 35:56)

In __Last Looks, Last Books__, the eminent critic Helen Vendler examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death alike. With traditional religious consolations no longer available to them, these poets must invent new ways to express the crisis of death, as well as the paradoxical coexistence of a declining body and an undiminished consciousness. In __The Rock__, Wallace Stevens writes simultaneous narratives of winter and spring; in __Ariel__, Sylvia Plath sustains melodrama in cool formality; and in __Day by Day__, Robert Lowell subtracts from plenitude. In __Geography III__, Elizabeth Bishop is both caught and freed, while James Merrill, in __A Scattering of Salts__, creates a series of self-portraits as he dies, representing himself by such things as a Christmas tree, human tissue on a laboratory slide, and the evening/morning star. The solution for one poet will not serve for another; each must invent a bridge from an old style to a new one. Casting a last look at life as they contemplate death, these modern writers enrich the resources of lyric poetry. Modern American poets writing in the face of death In Last Looks, Last Books , the eminent critic Helen Vendler examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death alike. With traditional religious consolations no longer available to them, these poets must invent new ways to express the crisis of death, as well as the paradoxical coexistence of a declining body and an undiminished consciousness. In The Rock , Wallace Stevens writes simultaneous narratives of winter and spring; in Ariel , Sylvia Plath sustains melodrama in cool formality; and in Day by Day , Robert Lowell subtracts from plenitude. In Geography III , Elizabeth Bishop is both caught and freed, while James Merrill, in A Scattering of Salts , creates a series of self-portraits as he dies, representing himself by such things as a Christmas tree, human tissue on a laboratory slide, and the evening/morning star. The solution for one poet will not serve for another; each must invent a bridge from an old style to a new one. Casting a last look at life as they contemplate death, these modern writers enrich the resources of lyric poetry.

In Last Looks, Last Books, the eminent critic Helen Vendler examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death alike. With traditional religious consolations no longer available to them, these poets must invent new ways to express the crisis of death, as well as the paradoxical coexistence of a declining body and an undiminished consciousness. In The Rock, Wallace Stevens writes simultaneous narratives of winter and spring; in Ariel, Sylvia Plath sustains melodrama in cool formality; and in Day by Day, Robert Lowell subtracts from plenitude. In Geography III, Elizabeth Bishop is both caught and freed, while James Merrill, in A Scattering of Salts, creates a series of self-portraits as he dies, representing himself by such things as a Christmas tree, human tissue on a laboratory slide, and the evening/morning star. The solution for one poet will not serve for another; each must invent a bridge from an old style to a new one. Casting a last look at life as they contemplate death, these modern writers enrich the resources of lyric poetry.

Vendler "examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death. With traditional religious consolations no longer available to them, these poets must invent new ways to express the crisis of death, as well as the paradoxical coexistence of a declining body and an undiminished consciousness ... The solution for one poet will not serve for another; each must invent a bridge from an old style to a new one. Casting a last look at life as they contemplate death, these modern writers enrich the resources of lyric poetry"--Publisher description Content: Introduction: last looks, last books -- Looking at the worst: Wallace Stevens' The rock -- The contest of melodrama and restraint: Sylvia Plath's Ariel -- Images of subtraction: Robert Lowell's Day by day -- Caught and freed: Elizabeth Bishop and Geography III -- Self-portraits while dying: James Merrill and A scattering of salts.