A New Theory for American Poetry

Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination

Angus Fletcher

  • 2005 Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism in Memory of Newton Arvin

Introduction

1. Clare's Horizon

2. The Argument of Form

3. Description

4. Ashbery's Clare

5. Diurnal Knowledge

6. The Whitman Phrase

7. The Environment-Poem

8. Waves and the Troping of Poetic Form

9. Middle Voice

10. Ashbery and the Becoming of the Poem

11. Meditating Chaos and Complexity

12. The Long Amazing and Unprecedented Way

13. Coherence

14. Precious Idiosyncrasy: An Epilogue

Notes

Index

  • Cover: A New Theory for American Poetry

Angus Fletcher is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the City University of New York Graduate School.