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Coming of Age as a Poet : Milton, Keats, Eliot, Plath
Coming of Age as a Poet Milton Keats Eliot Plath Author:Helen Vendler By looking at the precedents, circumstances, and artistry of the first perfect poems composed by John Milton, John Keats, T. S. Eliot, and Sylvia Plath, Coming of Age as a Poet offers rare insight into this mysterious process that precedes poetic achievement. "Reading a Vendler essay is like coming home to the cave; like entering the... more » mind of the poet. In Coming of Age as a Poet, a collection of four essays, Vendler looks at the point in the lives of four poets … when they came into their own maturity as poets, found their discourses, the styles and the voices that would make them immortal … Vendler shows them on their vulnerable ascents to greatness." —Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times Book Review "A clear but subtle account of the struggles, the rites of passage, undergone by four poets, while still in their 20s, negotiating with tradition in order to find their style and attain their majority—to become, in fact, major poets … Each chapter becomes a short story, a thrillingly compressed account of the vicissitudes of genius … It is a pleasure to be guided by [Vendler] into the poet's workshop—she is so good at making poetry matter." —Philip Horne, Manchester Guardian« less