Peter McDonald's Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill explores the intricate relationship between poetic form and artistic authority, examining how modern and contemporary poets utilize formal structures to assert their creative legitimacy. The book traces a lineage from W.B. Yeats, who revitalized traditional forms to express personal and national identity, through to Geoffrey Hill, whose complex, often challenging verse embodies a rigorous engagement with history and morality. McDonald argues that the deliberate use of form in serious poetry is not merely a technical choice but a fundamental strategy for establishing a poet’s authority, allowing them to grapple with timeless themes in a manner that commands intellectual and ethical respect.
Peter McDonald's Serious Poetry: Form and Authority from Yeats to Hill explores the intricate relationship between poetic form and artistic authority, examining how modern and contemporary poets utilize formal structures to assert their creative legitimacy. The book traces a lineage from W.B. Yeats, who revitalized traditional forms to express personal and national identity, through to Geoffrey Hill, whose complex, often challenging verse embodies a rigorous engagement with history and morality. McDonald argues that the deliberate use of form in serious poetry is not merely a technical choice but a fundamental strategy for establishing a poet’s authority, allowing them to grapple with timeless themes in a manner that commands intellectual and ethical respect.
Oxford University Press 2007
