Word: pagliaã
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Dates: during 2006-2006
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...with which Paglia lays out the central moves of each work. If there is a famous poem that a reader has never particularly enjoyed—for me, it was Wallace Stevens’ “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”—Paglia??s analysis will help the reader understand its merits. But, while her analysis will unquestionably enrich a reader’s understanding of an already-beloved work, it may not advance it to the next level...
This is not to say that Paglia??s essays don’t contain important and novel insights. She notes the subtle interplay of themes and images between different poems, and seamlessly integrates historical context and contemporary allusion. Her discussion of the fallen tyrant in Shelley’s “Ozymandias,” for instance, touches on the resonance of the poem in post-Napoleonic Europe, as well as noting that “modern readers may find the clarity of conception and execution of ‘Ozymandias’ especially compelling because Shelley?...
...Paglia??s comparisons of poems and visual art are particularly effective. The colors in “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock,” she writes, conjure the rich hues of a Gauguin painting, a comparison that reinforces the tension in the poem between the puritanical world in which Stevens lives and the lush creativity of his imagination...
Those who read “Break, Blow, Burn,” and appreciate Paglia??s wit and panache, however, may find themselves wishing she had written a slightly different book. Paglia??s passionate defense of the poems she loves is worthwhile, but a passionate attack on the poetry she considers overrated would have been irresistible...
...would also have been illuminating. Paglia??s decided opinions about what makes a poem great inform her analysis in “Break, Blow, Burn,” and she devotes a few pages to her poetic philosophy in her introduction. But the greatness of almost all the poems she discusses here is uncontroversial, so her viewpoint does not emerge as clearly as it could...