How to Read a Poem

Terry Eagleton is John Edward Taylor Professor of English Literature at the University of Manchester. His recent publications include The English Novel (2004), Sweet Violence: The Idea of the Tragic (2003), The Idea of Culture (2000), Scholars and Rebels in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (1999), Literary Theory: An Introduction (Second Edition, 1996) and The Illusions of Postmodernism (1996), all published by Blackwell Publishing.

"The wit he brings to the task of helping readers read poems will, for some readers (myself included), be a source of pleasure." (Notes and Queries, June 2010) “From the first page, the reader of How to Read a Poem realises that this, at last, is a book which begins to answer Adrian Mitchell's charge: 'Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people'. Eagleton introduces himself as 'a politically minded literary theorist'. The remarkable achievement of this book is to prove that such a theorist is the only person who can really show what poetry is for. By a brilliant and scrupulous series of readings - of Yeats and Frost and Auden and Dickinson - framed in a lively account of the function of criticism as perhaps only he could expound it, Eagleton shows how literary theory, seriously understood, is the ground of poetic understanding. This will be the indispensable apology for poetry in our time.”Bernard O'Donoghue, Wadham College, Oxford "With energy and wit, Eagleton proves once and for all that close readers and theoretical readers should be partners rather than enemies." John Redmond, Liverpool University"...lucid and engaging...Eagleton's book 'designed as an introduction to poetry for students and general readers', is a breath of fresh air." Marjorie Perloff, TLS, Books of the Year“Eagleton raises many interesting points” Choice“A how-to book with an agenda. Smart, witty and provocative ... How to Read a Poem challenges us not only to look again at poetic form, but also to bring aesthetics back into our discussions fo what makes a poem worth studying. We may not agree with Eagleton, but we would do well to accept his challenge."College Literature"Illuminating."The Times

• Preface viiAcknowledgements viii1 The Functions of Criticism 11 The End of Criticism? 12 Politics and Rhetoric 83 The Death of Experience 174 Imagination 222 What is Poetry? 251 Poetry and Prose 252 Poetry and Morality 283 Poetry and Fiction 314 Poetry and Pragmatism 385 Poetic Language 413 Formalists 481 Literariness 482 Estrangement 493 The Semiotics of Yury Lotman 524 The Incarnational Fallacy 594 In Pursuit of Form 651 The Meaning of Form 652 Form versus Content 703 Form as Transcending Content 794 Poetry and Performance 885 Two American Examples 965 How to Read a Poem 1021 Is Criticism Just Subjective? 1022 Meaning and Subjectivity 1083 Tone, Mood and Pitch 1144 Intensity and Pace 1185 Texture 1206 Syntax, Grammar and Punctuation 1217 Ambiguity 1248 Punctuation 1309 Rhyme 13110 Rhythm and Metre 13511 Imagery 1386 Four Nature Poems 1431 William Collins, 'Ode to Evening' 1432 William Wordsworth, 'The Solitary Reaper' 1493 Gerard Manley Hopkins, 'God's Grandeur' 1534 Edward Thomas, 'Fifty Faggots' 1575 Form and History 161Glossary 165Index 169