WILLIAMS, D.,
The Life of Words. Etymology and Modern Poetry.
Oxford University Press, 2020. 320p. Hardback. Neither the sound of a word nor its history provides a metaphysically or intellectually reliable guide to its present-day use and force. Poets, however, sometimes write as if such a guide could exist, or as if their poems could provide one: these imaginary guides stand behind, or direct, some recent poets' major works. So David-Antoine Williams concludes in this learned, careful, insightful study of how these poets take account of etymology: not only the histories and the origins of words, but also the stories we tell about them, whether or not we believe them. Stephanie Burt, Modern Philology Apr 2022 |a 03/05/2022 (Publisher's information).
€ 110.06
(New)