The Poetry Of Allusion

Christopher Ricks is among the best known living critics. His third collection of essays, several newly written for this book, is strongly focused on the theme of how writers--especially but not exclusively poets--make use of other writers' work: from the subtle courtesies of different kinds of allusion to the extreme discourtesy of plagiarism.

This book examines how Gwendolyn Brooks, a self-proclaimed nonreligious person, advocates adherence to Christian ideals through religious allusions in her poetry. The discussion integrates Brooks' words, biographical data, commentary by other scholars, scriptural references, and doctrinal tenets. It identifies biblical figures and events and highlights Brooks' effective use of the sermon genre, and her express parallels between Christianity and Democracy. The work opens with a biographical chapter and Brooks' comments on religion, followed by analyses of her long poems, and more than thirty of her short ones. An illuminating interview with Nora Brooks Blakely about Brooks' religious background and philosophy is included.

A Stanford University Press classic.

A consideration of the allusive poetry of Ovid based on the philosophy of Martin Buber

The study of the deliberate allusion by one author to the words of a previous author has long been central to Latin philology. However, literary Romanists have been diffident about situating such work within the more spacious inquiries into intertextuality now current. This 1998 book represents an attempt to find (or recover) some space for the study of allusion - as a project of continuing vitality - within an excitingly enlarged universe of intertexts. It combines traditional classical approaches with modern literary-theoretical ways of thinking, and offers attentive close readings, innovative perspectives on literary history, and theoretical sophistication of argument. Like other volumes in the series it is among the most broadly conceived short books on Roman literature to be published in recent years.

"One has to look back to Mark Van Doren's momentous John Dryden for a study of a major English poet which is as ambitious in intention and as convincing in execution."--New Statesman. "Will send the reader back to his Pope with an enriched appreciation."--Times Literary Supplement. The paperback reissue of a long out-of-print classic, this volume examines how allusion works in Pope, allowing the modern reader to feel the presence of Virgil, Horace, and Homer much in the way that Pope and his contemporaries felt it and giving readers a concrete sense of the poetic voices that Pope heard as he wrote.

The role of poetic allusion in classical Greek poetry, to Homer especially, has often largely been neglected or even almost totally ignored. This book, first published in 1990, clarifies the place of Homer in Greek education, as well as adding to the interpretation of many important tragedies. Focussing on the dramatic masterpieces of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and how these writers imitated and alluded to other poetry, the author reveals the immense dependence on Homer which can be seen throughout the corpus of Attic tragedy. It is argued that the practice of the art of allusion indicates certain conventions in fifth-century Athenian education, and perhaps also suggests something in the way of public, political, and historical self-awareness. Invaluable to anyone interested in the reception of Homer in the classical age, and to students of comparative literature and linguistic theory.

Each chapter of Literary Allusion in Harry Potter consists of an in-depth discussion of the intersection between Potter and a canonical literary work; a discussion which aims to transform the reader’s understanding of Rowling’s literary achievement as well as to encourage wider reading and discovery of writers with who they may not be familiar.

This book explores Callimachus' allusive practice in his Aetia prologue and Hymns 4, 5, and 6, and in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The study includes an overview of modern approaches to poetic allusion, a close (re-)examination of the lexical allusions in the Aetia's and Metamorphoses' prologues, extensive examinations of allusive techniques within selections of these works, the poets' use of "signposting" and "authorization" techniques, and the relationship between allusion and genre.

This volume defines allusion then identifies the 23 likely allusions in the Elihu speeches (Job 32–37) to Job 1–31. The allusiveness of the unit is a compositional feature that explains the varied evaluations of Elihu throughout interpretive history.