Product Description

U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass considers some of the twentiethcentury poets who bring him pleasure: Robert Lowll, JamesWright, Tomas Transtromer, Joseph Brodsky, Yvor Winters,Robert Creeley, James McMichael, Czeslaw Milosz, and others,in this, his first collection of essays. Originally published in1984, Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry won theNational Book Critics Circle Award for criticism. A new collection of Robert Hass's essays will be published by Ecco in 1998.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #648526 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-18
• Released on: 2000-01-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 324 pages

Review
"Here [is] theproseofan intelligent man who wishes to served poetry--not appropriate it or crow over it or show off as its expense--and this is a rare enough experience to arouse gratitude and admiration." -- Times Literary Supplement

"[Hass'] final intention is not merely to judge but to give a picture of the writer's mind.... Mr. Hass believes that poetry is what defines the self, and it is his ability to describe that process that is the heart of this book's pleasure." -- New York Times Book Review

About the Author
Robert Hass is the author of two earlier collections of poems, Field Guide and Praise, and a book of essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures. He has also collaborated with Czeslaw Milosz on the translation of his poems, most recently Collected Poems. His many honors include a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur fellowship and the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award in criticism. He has taught for many years at St. Mary's College of California and is currently a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

Customer Reviews

yes
part of what makes this book so wonderful is the way hass captures his love of poetry in prose that is warm and consistently interesting and inviting, which is a big difference from most essays on poems coming out these days, which are long on ideas and short on awe. excellent and heartfelt.

Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry
Thank you for a textbook that was clean and in excellent condition!