In the fifteen years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America, countless literary and artistic works have responded to the incident. This paper examines Amiri Baraka's literary response to this violent event through his most famous poem entitled "Somebody blew up America," which defies American orthodox responses to the attacks. The…

While conventional critics seek the comic aspect of parody, modernist critics credit parody with questioning mainstream literary trends and subverting literary production. For instance, Mikhail Bakhtin believes in parody's power to create "a decrowning double" by turning the official worldview up-side-down. For experimental poets like…

Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Homer's Iliad are among the first literary masterpieces of Iran and Greece. These teachings include the educational teachings of Zal and Roudabeh, and Paris and Helen. This paper presents a comparative look at the immortal effect of this Iranian poet with Homer's poem--the Greek blind poet. In this comparison, using a…

Although Khayyam is one of the Persian poets whose school of thought and poems are studied the most, there is hardly a research in which his intellectual system is explained and made clear via a linguistic framework. In this paper one of the most debatable matters which is "Obligation" versus "Free Will" is dealt with by using…

Inspired by an experience of teaching the drafts of Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art", this article rereads the drafts as far more than imperfect precursors to the final poem. The drafts have their own prosodic features and poetic logic, one that values and enacts a vertiginous dilation of thought, expression and memory. The final version of…

The problem of understanding oral poetics, or oral traditional poetry, is examined in this survey of contemporary Homeric scholarship in England. The Homeric problem, as it is reflected in both the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", is considered in four key areas, including: (1) the poetic text, (2) comparative methodology, (3) the…

The person and poetry of Walt Whitman are discussed. Excerpts from his poems are included. (RM)

Discusses H.D.'s influence on Adrienne Rich in the context of Rich's vision of female literary tradition as a "family" model of influence in which mothers and daughters, represented by past and present authors, seek to transcend the divisive attitudes of patriarchy (in contrast to Bloom's theory of literary, oedipal rivalry). (ML)

Describes and presents examples of work from the Western Michigan school of bad versemakers, a group of nineteenth century poets who strove to give their frontier experiences high seriousness, but achieved, at best, unintentional humor. (MM)

This book was developed to serve as a reference for criticisms of poems by British and American poets. Included are 2,862 criticisms of 1,150 poems by 285 poets. The books and articles indexed were selected on the basis of their availability in college and university libraries; most were written during the eleven-year period from 1960-1970. The…

Translation from the French. (SK)

Special issue on contemporary Spanish American literature. (DS)

Derek Walcott is the major voice of the Caribbean naissance. His strength lies in the creative tension between the particularity of his Caribbean setting and the universalities of his theme and style. His stylistic influences and allusions resemble those of Donne, Marvell, Yeats, Hopkins, Pound, Ransom, Spender, Lowell, and Graves. Passages of his…