{"product_id":"a-little-history-of-poetry-9780300283426","title":"A Little History of Poetry","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA vital guide to poetry from ancient times to the present\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"[A] fizzing, exhilarating book.\"—Sebastian Faulks, \u003cem\u003eSunday Times,\u003c\/em\u003e London\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Delightful.'\"—\u003cem\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePoetry is language made special, so that it will be remembered and valued. It does not always work – over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten. This \u003cem\u003eLittle History\u003c\/em\u003e is about some that have not. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohn Carey tells the stories behind the world's greatest poems, from the oldest surviving one written nearly 4,000 years ago to those being written today. Carey looks at poets whose works shape our view of the world – such as Shakespeare, Whitman and Yeats – and more recent poets like Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, and Marianne Moore who have started to question what makes a poem 'great' in the first place. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLittle Histories \u003c\/em\u003e– Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eDetails\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eISBN13: 9780300283426\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eFormat: Paperback \/ softback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNumber of Pages: 320\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEdition: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication Date: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublisher: Yale University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePublication City, Country: United States\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDimensions (cm): 19.7(H)x12.7(L)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeight (gm): \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch4\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Carey\u003c\/b\u003e is Emeritus Professor at the University of Oxford. His books include \u003ci\u003eThe Essential Paradise Lost \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eWhat Good are the Arts?\u003c\/i\u003e, studies of Donne and Dickens and a biography of William Golding. \u003ci\u003eThe Unexpected Professor\u003c\/i\u003e, his memoir, was a \u003ci\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/i\u003eBest Seller.\u003ch4\u003eReviews\u003c\/h4\u003e“[The] book reviewer and Oxford don has great fun, galloping through 4,000 years of verse. Reputations are flayed and poetic gems are uncovered.”—Robbie Millen and Andrew Holgate, \u003ci\u003eThe Times and Sunday Times,\u003c\/i\u003e “Best Books of 2020”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  “[A] fizzing, exhilarating book”—Sebastian Faulks, \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Carey’s delightful survey never takes itself or its subject too seriously. ‘Over the centuries countless thousands of poems have been forgotten,’ he writes. ‘This is a book about some that have not.’”—\u003ci\u003eNew York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Don’t let the diminutive title fool you. This is an expansive, not to mention accessible, tour of poetry’s importance and evolution, from ‘Beowulf’ to Shakespeare to Maya Angelou and beyond.”—\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e 2020 Holiday Gift Guide\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Few modern literature professors are capable of writing a book as interesting and mischievous as this.”—James Marriott, \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e ‘Best Literary Non-Fiction Books of 2020’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This supremely compact and erudite introduction doesn’t just pack in a bunch of facts and potted biographies, it somehow manages to convey the transcendent glory of the form through the ages, whether it’s sagas, hymns, ballads or verse...Carey is frighteningly well informed but always accessible, and this guide will offer riches whether you’re a total newbie or a poetry buff.”—Sybille Bedford, \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times \u003c\/i\u003e'Best Literary Books of 2020'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This characterfully compered mini-anthology would make a great guide for anyone just beginning to explore poetry, at any age.”—David Sexton, \u003ci\u003eEvening Standard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Carey is a welcoming host, full of enthusiasm…He can throw sparkling light on a poet’s method in a handful of words.”—Craig Brown, \u003ci\u003eMail on Sunday\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Exhilarating”—Bel Mooney, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[A] short but impressively comprehensive account of poetry”—Duncan Ferguson, \u003ci\u003eThe Herald\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[F]or more than 50 years, his taut, spry, flexible, idiomatic style has enabled [Carey] to engage a large non-specialist audience without, for the most part, stinting his deep infectious belief that literature is serious, and matters.”—Leo Robson, \u003ci\u003eNew Statesman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eA Little History of Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e succeeds…because it communicates Carey's love for a poet clearly and infectiously. It would be a dull reader who did not finish the chapter on Chaucer with an itch to reopen \"The Miller's Tale\", yes, but even Troilus and Criseyde as well.”—Harry Cochrane, \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “\u003ci\u003eA Little History of Poetry\u003c\/i\u003e is delightful and succinct: 40 perceptive chapters in 295 pages, covering nearly 200 poets…Still, the book is a history – a history of poetry and the contexts in which it is embedded: personal, cultural, religious, social, linguistic, political.”—Brian B. McClorry SJ, Thinking Faith [online journal]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Does anyone know more about poetry than John Carey? Almost certainly not.”—\u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, Best Books for Summer 2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “[A] dazzling book…John Carey has been writing brilliant, eminently readable literary criticism for as long as most of us can remember.”—Roger Alton, \u003ci\u003eDaily Mail\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Chapters are enticingly short and compelling to read. Carey is immensely readable with so many poets’ work and biography underpinned with illustrative personal stories and fascinating observations.”—\u003ci\u003eWord Matters\u003c\/i\u003e [Journal]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “John Carey, the \"Unexpected Professor\", has done it again. From Homer to Heaney in 300 pages of crisp prose, apt quotation and illuminating judgement, he shows how poets have dealt with politics, race, religion, thought, landscape, history, memory and the movement of the human heart.”—Piers Plowright, \u003ci\u003eThe Tablet\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Carey is excellent at sketching biographies, quoting judiciously and generously, and keen to be explanatory without being patronising: you can see in the use of anecdote and analogy the experience of years lecturing to drifting undergraduates.”—Seamus Perry, \u003ci\u003eLondon Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This handsome book is a wonderful introduction to poetry from many different cultures across a range of eras...As an introduction to the different forms poetry can take, it can hardly be bettered.”—Terry Freedman, \u003ci\u003eTeach Secondary\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Warm in tone, informative, generous in its sympathies, inviting in its choices, with a clear emphasis on human stories underpinning poetic achievement.”—Emma Smith, author of \u003ci\u003eThis is Shakespeare\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “This wonderfully positive and vivid history is a delight on every page ... Carey’s sparkling \u003ci\u003eLittle History of Poetry \u003c\/i\u003eis an astonishingly full introduction to English poetry from \u003ci\u003eBeowulf \u003c\/i\u003eto the present, set in a framework extending in place and time from \u003ci\u003eGilgamesh \u003c\/i\u003eto Akhmatova and Seferis.”—Bernard O'Donoghue, Winner of the Whitbread Poetry Award\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Here is an informative, fast-moving book … Like Carey’s previous works, it’s forceful as well as clear, and it’s populist, no-nonsense and anti-elite in its sympathies. Many people may find new favourites here.”—Stephanie Burt, Professor of English, Harvard University\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Books about poetry are rarely page turners, but Carey’s little history is gripping, is unputdownable! Reading this book and its galaxy of poets is like looking up at the sky and seeing the whole wheeling and constellated universe.”—Daljit Nagra, author of \u003ci\u003eLook We Have Coming to Dover!\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “An elegant history of poetry, what it is, what it does, why it matters, written in an authoritative and engaging voice. Masterly.”—Ruth Padel, \u003ci\u003eauthor of 52 Ways of Looking at a Poem\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  ","brand":"John Carey","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50628756898009,"sku":"9780300283426","price":22.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0502\/9530\/8441\/files\/9780300283426.jpg?v=1791458775","url":"https:\/\/www.arielbooks.com.au\/products\/a-little-history-of-poetry-9780300283426","provider":"Ariel","version":"1.0","type":"link"}