THE WORLD’S BODY—John Crowe Ransom—Scribner ($2.75). There is no primer of modern poetry. Readers who are intimidated by its obscurity soon find that most prose explanations tend to become almost as ...

Many a critic, determined to speak with clarity and certitude upon the dauntingly ambiguous subject of modern poetry in English—or upon modernism in general, for that matter—has found himself invoking ...

Austin, Mary. The American Rhythm. 1923. New and enlarged ed., Houghton Mifflin, 1930. Bell, Michael. “Myths and Texts.” A History of Modernist Poetry, edited by ...

MR. HOWELLS practices the profession of the critic somewhat half-heartedly, with little seeming care whether he is original, convincing, or even thorough. Does he suspect that his own critical work is ...

Edwin Muir (1887-1959) was a Scottish poet who wrote in a plain style with vivid imagery. While he is counted among the Modernist poets, he did not share the Modernist view of poetry as an end in ...

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue. In her 2003 Paris Review interview, Jorie Graham evokes a radiant image from her childhood in Rome: a “huge marble ...

THERE has been a real need for a definitive collection of modern poetry of the period since the World War, exemplifying recent work of established poets, the increase of associative imagery, the shift ...