From the Middle Ages to the close of the 17th century, alchemy was fundamental to Western culture. Though its significance declined with the rise of chemistry, the lore of alchemy still colors imaginative works in the modern world. This study examines the literary representation of alchemical theory...

From the Middle Ages to the close of the 17th century, alchemy was fundamental to Western culture. Though its significance declined with the rise of chemistry, the lore of alchemy still colors imaginative works in the modern world. This study examines the literary representation of alchemical theory and the metaphor of alchemical regeneration in the works of Edward Taylor, Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller. While Taylor used alchemical metaphors to illustrate the redeeming power of God's grace, Poe used them to represent the transforming power of imagination. Hawthorne, in turn, used alchemical imagery to show the restorative power of love, while Fuller employed alchemical figures to suggest the reconciliation of gender opposites.

"What a delight it is to read these astute essays by poets one admires about poets one has treasured for years! The critical intelligence and lively writing on every page should appeal to a wide audience. Students of the Early Modern Lyric will find much to refresh their understanding; the general...

"What a delight it is to read these astute essays by poets one admires about poets one has treasured for years! The critical intelligence and lively writing on every page should appeal to a wide audience. Students of the Early Modern Lyric will find much to refresh their understanding; the general reader will be seduced -- and rewarded."--Chana Bloch, author of "Mrs. Dumpty and co-translator of "The Song of Songs

"This is a splendid collection, shrewdly conceived and brilliantly executed, which should be read by anyone who loves poetry. As some of our most accomplished contemporary poets ruminate on the poetry of the seventeenth century, they also illuminate the practices and possibilities of twenty-first century poetry."--Michael Schoenfeldt, author of "Bodies and Selves in Early Modern England

"All poetry in English reaches back one way or another for its pith and sweetness to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There is always, in every true poem, some seed or element of that period, honey of lute song or devotional bite. I think that goes for Frank O'Hara and Allen Ginsberg, for Elizabeth Bishop and Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Lowell, for Wallace Stevens and William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore, for Mark Strand and Frank Bidart and Louise Gluck, for C. D. Wright and Michael Palmer, and for the young poets in college and high school. You can hear it and feel it, through infinite variations--and that is why this book is a great idea."--Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laureate of the United States

"I am delighted by Jonathan Post's collection. There is no other collection or anthology of this sort, or even remotely similar, available to students of poetry of the past, or toreaders of contemporary poets. "Green Thoughts, Green Shades "is the liveliest collection of criticism I have read in a long time."--Richard Howard, author of "Trappings: New Poems"