The renowned literary critic offers an enlightening exploration of three great poets that "goes to the heart of our experience of lyric" (Bonnie Costello, Boston University, author of Shifting Ground).When a poet addresses a living person, we recognize the expression of intimacy. But what impels poets to leap across time and space to speak to invisible listeners? In Invisible Listeners, Helen Vendler looks at three great poets from different centur...

In 13 essays, the great poetry critic offers her final word on the poets who have meant the most to her, from Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson to Wallace Stevens and Sylvia PlathHelen Vendler was our greatest reader of poetry, a scholar who illuminiated its inner mechanisms and emotional roots for a wide audience.Always attentive to the stylistic and imaginative features of a poem, Vendler addresses the work of a wide range of American, English, and Irish p...

“A great achievement, the work of an author with an almost devout passion for good poems.”—Frank Kermode, New Republic“Criticism of the Sonnets, and by extension, critical accounts of poetry, will never be the same again.”—Tom Paulin, London Review of BooksThe definitive guide to Shakespeare’s Sonnets from the most accomplished critic of our time.

A dazzling short assessment of the life and work of the poet and winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for literature.Among Heaney’s many published collections are ‘Death of a Naturalist’, ‘North’, ‘Field Work’, ‘Station Island’ and ‘Spirit Level’ (May 1996), which was that rarest of things: a collection of poetry that was also a bestseller. Yet despite his popularity, Heaney’s poetry can be difficult and intractable, not least because it is linked to two rich literary traditions, the Eng...

“Simply superb.”—NationA landmark study reconstructs the magnificent architecture of Keats’s odes beam by beam.With the exception of Shakespeare, John Keats has garnered more critical attention than probably any other English poet, above all for his six great odes. Composed in the span of just a few months in 1819, the odes mark the high point of Keats’s all-too-short literary career, forming, as Helen Vendl...

“In reminding us to look at and listen to the actual words on the page...Vendler invites us to expand our response to experience, and to find in it—if we are both attentive and lucky—beauty and solace.”—Christopher Benfey, New York Review of BooksThe grand dame of poetic criticism defends lyric poetry as a product of fierce intelligence as much as creative inspiration.Poetry has often been considered an irra...

Modern American poets writing in the face of deathIn Last Looks, Last Books, the eminent critic Helen Vendler examines the ways in which five great modern American poets, writing their final books, try to find a style that does justice to life and death alike. With traditional religious consolations no longer available to them, these poets must invent new ways to express the crisis of death, as well as the paradoxical coexistence of a declining body and an...

“I cannot imagine that anybody who cares for Herbert, or more generally for poetry, will fail to learn something from this book.”—Frank Kermode, New York Times Book ReviewA comprehensive reevaluation of the eminent metaphysical poet discovers the human passions warring with his saintly visions of divine harmony.George Herbert’s admission to the canon of English poetry was hard won. Though acclaimed in his ow...

“One of [Vendler’s] finest books, an impressive summation of a long, distinguished career.”—Charles Simic, New York Review of BooksA Times Higher Education Book of the Week.A lively collection of the great critic’s later work showcases her unswerving and deeply personal dedication to good poetry.One of our foremost commentators on poetry examines the work of a broad range of nineteenth- and ...

When a poet addresses a living person - whether friend or enemy, lover or sister - we recognize the expression of intimacy. But what impels poets to leap across time and space to speak to invisible listeners, seeking an ideal intimacy - George Herbert with God, Walt Whitman with a reader in the future, John Ashbery with the Renaissance painter Francesco Parmigianino? In Invisible Listeners, Helen Vendler argues that such poets must invent the language that will enact, on the page,...

"This biography explores the extraordinary life and achievements of Helen Vendler, from her early days as an aspiring scholar to her emergence as a visionary figure in literature." Vendler's astute intellect and fervent love for poetry have profoundly influenced the discipline of literary criticism through her rigorous method of attentive reading and interpretation. This compelling narrative highlights Vendler's resolute commitment to unraveling the profound intricacies of poetic communica...

If William Shakespeare had never written a single play, if his reputation rested entirely upon the substantial and sterling body of nondramatic verse he left behind, he would still hold the position he does in the hierarchy of world literature. The strikingly modern sonnets–intimate, baroque, and expansive at once; the invigorating narratives drawn from classical subjects; and the flawless lyricism represented by a poem like “The Phoenix and the Turtle”–permanently deepen our understanding...