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Ecstatic occasions, expedient forms : 85…
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Ecstatic occasions, expedient forms : 85 leading contemporary poets select and comment on their poems (edition 1996)

by David Lehman

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This unique anthology has as its focus the notion of form in contemporary poetry. No subject has attracted more vigorous discussion within the community of poets and critics in the past ten years. If we are to understand what form is and how it shapes poetic expression, we must turn to the poems themselves for clues. And if we are very lucky, we can listen to the voice of the poets who wrote them.   In Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms, contemporary poets have selected one poem, commenting on the occasion of its creation and on the form the poem eventually took. Originally published in 1987 with a selection of 65 poets, this revised and expanded edition adds selections by twenty additional poets. Other revisions include an enlarged glossary of terms, and more expanded biographies of individual poets. The range of contributors is wide, and includes John Ashbery, John Cage, Rita Dove, Alice Fulton, Marilyn Hacker, Yusef Komunyakaa, James Merrill, Thylias Moss, Robert Pinsky, Charles Simic, and Richard Wilbur. Among the new contributions is Wyn Cooper's poem "Fun," which was the basis for Sheryl Crow's Grammy-award winning song "All I Wanna Do."… (more)
Member:joannasephine
Title:Ecstatic occasions, expedient forms : 85 leading contemporary poets select and comment on their poems
Authors:David Lehman
Info:Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, c1996.
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Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms: 85 Leading Contemporary Poets Select and Comment on Their Poems by David Lehman

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This is a volume devoted to the question of form in poetry, aiming ‘to define the range of formal possibilities available to poets today’.
Eighty-five modern writers each contribute a poem together with an essay on its composition and form; there is also an 18-page glossary describing and illustrating 29 different literary forms, from acrostic to word golf. Among the 85 poems, the editor states, ‘you will find villanelles, pantoums, prose poems, sonnets, songs, narratives, commentaries, rhymed poems, free verse, a poem in the form of a musical fugue, a poem in the form of baseball lineups, a poem in the form of an index to a non-existent book, a poem based on a principle of alliteration, and a sonnet containing fewer than 14 words’.
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Trying to come up with a working definition of form is a little like trying to measure the circumference of a deity whose centre, Pascal tells us, is everywhere. ... Wisdom dictates that the question of form be addressed with reference to specific texts.
the book aimed to define the range of formal possibilities available to poets today. The title was adapted from Marianne Moore ... "Ecstasy affords the occasion and expediency determines the form".
In this book [85 contributions] you will find villanelles, pantoums, prose poems, sonnets, songs, narratives, commentaries, rhymed poems, free verse, a poem in the form of a musical fugue, a poem in the form of baseball lineups, a poem in the form of an index to a non-existent book, a poem based on a principle of alliteration, and a sonnet containing fewer than 14 words.
"What is `form' for anyone else is `content' for me," Paul Valéry
observed ... At the opposite extreme are those for whom form properly
considered is an extension of content. "Form precedes language" , Susan
Mitchell contends. No, form and content "come into being simultaneously"
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This unique anthology has as its focus the notion of form in contemporary poetry. No subject has attracted more vigorous discussion within the community of poets and critics in the past ten years. If we are to understand what form is and how it shapes poetic expression, we must turn to the poems themselves for clues. And if we are very lucky, we can listen to the voice of the poets who wrote them.   In Ecstatic Occasions, Expedient Forms, contemporary poets have selected one poem, commenting on the occasion of its creation and on the form the poem eventually took. Originally published in 1987 with a selection of 65 poets, this revised and expanded edition adds selections by twenty additional poets. Other revisions include an enlarged glossary of terms, and more expanded biographies of individual poets. The range of contributors is wide, and includes John Ashbery, John Cage, Rita Dove, Alice Fulton, Marilyn Hacker, Yusef Komunyakaa, James Merrill, Thylias Moss, Robert Pinsky, Charles Simic, and Richard Wilbur. Among the new contributions is Wyn Cooper's poem "Fun," which was the basis for Sheryl Crow's Grammy-award winning song "All I Wanna Do."

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