January 26th, 2009 / 1:36 pm
 Author Spotlight & Excerpts

Power Quote: M.L. Rosenthal

Modern poetry as a whole tends to be tragic in its assumption that we are at a cultural dead end, in which myriad values at cross-purposes, with modern political values the most virulent of all, are choking each other to death. The major poetic situation is the struggle of a heroic sensibility, or Self, to free itself from the condition of living death imposed by this murderous predicament. Clearly, the most elementary way to gain such freedom is to insist on the priority of instinct and emotion over all logical and systematic thought and over the demands of society. In many poems, Yeats fastens on the sexual act and the mystery of sexuality as the ultimate source of meaning.

-“Yeats and the Modern Mind”

(in The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction; (c) 1960)

Some problems just never get old, do they?

read “Leda and the Swan”

read “Sailing to Byzantium”

buy Poetry in English: An Anthology; M.L. Rosenthal, ed.

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17 Comments

  1. January 26th, 2009 / 6:44 pm pr—

      Beautiful. I love it when you get all old school.

  2. January 26th, 2009 / 2:44 pm pr—

      Beautiful. I love it when you get all old school.

  3. January 26th, 2009 / 8:58 pm keith n b—

      i couldn’t find much info online about ‘the modern poets’. would you be up for posting the table of contents, justin? if that’s too long, maybe a brief outline? the premise is curious, and i like having transparencies to place over amorphous experience.

      pr:

      i apologize for my comment in the previous post. your ass truly has transformative powers.

  4. January 26th, 2009 / 4:58 pm keith n b—

      i couldn’t find much info online about ‘the modern poets’. would you be up for posting the table of contents, justin? if that’s too long, maybe a brief outline? the premise is curious, and i like having transparencies to place over amorphous experience.

      pr:

      i apologize for my comment in the previous post. your ass truly has transformative powers.

  5. January 26th, 2009 / 10:18 pm ryan—

      that’s one of the awesomest paintings of all time. glad to see it, it’s been a while.

  6. January 26th, 2009 / 6:18 pm ryan—

      that’s one of the awesomest paintings of all time. glad to see it, it’s been a while.

  7. January 26th, 2009 / 7:48 pm pr—
  8. January 27th, 2009 / 12:00 am Justin Taylor—

      pr- thanks, baby. i was hoping you’d dig. also, i like Leda as a ginger better, but the one you linked is pretty solid too.

      keith- sure thing, man. look for it in a separate post tomorrow.

  9. January 26th, 2009 / 8:00 pm Justin Taylor—

      pr- thanks, baby. i was hoping you’d dig. also, i like Leda as a ginger better, but the one you linked is pretty solid too.

      keith- sure thing, man. look for it in a separate post tomorrow.

  10. January 27th, 2009 / 12:23 am ryan—

      holy wow! it’s a good thing the store is empty right now. that’s fantastic.

  11. January 26th, 2009 / 8:23 pm ryan—

      holy wow! it’s a good thing the store is empty right now. that’s fantastic.

  12. January 27th, 2009 / 12:24 am ryan—

      i’m not sure which of the two i like better… i could probably expound for a while on which parts i like best from each…

  13. January 26th, 2009 / 8:24 pm ryan—

      i’m not sure which of the two i like better… i could probably expound for a while on which parts i like best from each…

  14. January 27th, 2009 / 12:30 am Matthew Simmons—
  15. January 26th, 2009 / 8:30 pm Matthew Simmons—
  16. January 26th, 2009 / 9:43 pm pr—

      Nice, Matthew.

  17. April 17th, 2009 / 9:47 am <HTMLGIANT> » Blog Archive » Power Quote: Special T.O.C. edition, for keith n.b., with double special bonus shout-out to Paul Violi—

      […] a comment on yesterday’s “Power Quote” post, one of our regular commenters said he couldn’t find much about M.L. Rosenthal’s The […]