The Millions

Better Experienced than Explained: On ‘Why Poetry’ by Matthew Zapruder

, , , , , , , , , and y. Poetry has had its fair share of apologists. In , documents a tradition of poetic apology, but notes two important shifts. “contends with a charge that poetry has become culturally obsolete,” and “links the activity of defending poetry with that of defending literary criticism.” Johnson explains that “poets in modern poetic defenses converse with their own anxieties.” In poetry, as in other elements of life, it is more dramatic to

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