Books: Content in a Creative Closet ; the Strength of Poetry by James Fenton Oxford University Press, Pounds 25, 266pp: We Live in an Age That Asks Poets to Wear Hearts on Sleeves. That's Not Their Role, Says James Fenton. and Michael Schmidt Agrees

Schmidt, Michael, The Independent (London, England)

Between 1994 and 1999, the poet, critic and journalist James Fenton was Professor of Poetry at Oxford. The Strength of Poetry is the text of his professorial lectures. To his predecessor, Seamus Heaney, he dedicates "The Orpheus of Ulster", defending the Irish laureate's aesthetics and his politics of individual witness. W H Auden, Fenton's guiding star, pops up everywhere and is the subject of four chapters. Fenton's final lecture-sermon considers Auden's vexed marriage to Chester Kallman: "to be conscious but to refuse to understand, to live not in a fine but in a lean country, to hold to what was most difficult, to face that which was most hostile..." This is Saint Wystan: …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: Books: Content in a Creative Closet ; the Strength of Poetry by James Fenton Oxford University Press, Pounds 25, 266pp: We Live in an Age That Asks Poets to Wear Hearts on Sleeves. That's Not Their Role, Says James Fenton. and Michael Schmidt Agrees. Contributors: Schmidt, Michael - Author. Newspaper title: The Independent (London, England). Publication date: February 17, 2001. Page number: 11. © 2009 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.