This is the last of a series of three newsletters on the pleasures of language, a topic intended for summer enjoyment. We have been moving from circumference to center, beginning with the language of criticism, which should instruct about literary texts but which is, or should be, or could be, an art in itself, and therefore should give its own kind of pleasure. Last week we moved to the language of literature itself, but the greater part of the discussion was about prose. Today we arrive at the center of literature, which is poetry, the most language-intensive genre of literature and therefore the one which should give the most pleasure.
August 5, 2022
August 5, 2022
August 5, 2022
This is the last of a series of three newsletters on the pleasures of language, a topic intended for summer enjoyment. We have been moving from circumference to center, beginning with the language of criticism, which should instruct about literary texts but which is, or should be, or could be, an art in itself, and therefore should give its own kind of pleasure. Last week we moved to the language of literature itself, but the greater part of the discussion was about prose. Today we arrive at the center of literature, which is poetry, the most language-intensive genre of literature and therefore the one which should give the most pleasure.