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5 - Poem/Concept

from Part I - Ideas of the Poem

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 May 2024

Sean Pryor
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
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Summary

This chapter first considers the conceptual complexities involved in any reference to “the poem.” The poem can, for instance, be defined as a particular instantiation of a universal, called “poetry,” or it can be defined in opposition to other kinds of literary genre, linguistic artefact, or linguistic performance, from verse treatise to political slogan. The term “poem” may also be normative as well as descriptive, a marker not only of genre but also of success. Finally, the poem has sometimes been conceived in opposition to conceptual thinking itself, from which perspective the discourse of poems differs radically from the discourse of ideas. Treating examples by W. S. Graham, Ben Jonson, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Wallace Stevens, this chapter argues that, given this situation, poems continually strive to overspill their concept, whether by achieving the status of The Poem or of Poetry Itself, by breaking out of the confines of “mere” poetry and becoming part of the fabric of reality, or by changing what “poems” can be and what “poem” can mean.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Poem/Concept
  • Edited by Sean Pryor, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Poem
  • Online publication: 30 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009498852.007
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  • Poem/Concept
  • Edited by Sean Pryor, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Poem
  • Online publication: 30 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009498852.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Poem/Concept
  • Edited by Sean Pryor, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to the Poem
  • Online publication: 30 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009498852.007
Available formats
×