EBOOK
About
By poetry we-we the masses-mean something vague, something untrue, something uplifting, something beautiful, something so eloquent it isn't for every day. The word "poetry" is up there with "soul". And I am against it.'
My Grandmother's Glass Eye deploys its considerable learning, its intelligent expertise, wittily, memorably. It is an exercise in demystification and clarity. If you want to know how poetry works on the page, here are sure-footed accounts of particular poems. There is something Johnsonian in Craig Raine's common sense-an elegant wrecking ball used with precision and delicacy to pick off the pretentious, the platitudinous, the over-promoted. Here, poetry is well read, attentively read, by a practitioner whose range runs from Bion to John Lennon, from Bishop to Balanchine.
My Grandmother's Glass Eye deploys its considerable learning, its intelligent expertise, wittily, memorably. It is an exercise in demystification and clarity. If you want to know how poetry works on the page, here are sure-footed accounts of particular poems. There is something Johnsonian in Craig Raine's common sense-an elegant wrecking ball used with precision and delicacy to pick off the pretentious, the platitudinous, the over-promoted. Here, poetry is well read, attentively read, by a practitioner whose range runs from Bion to John Lennon, from Bishop to Balanchine.
Related Subjects
Reviews
"Treat yourself to a blast of poetry this summer. Anyone remotely interested in the art form should read Craig Raine's wonderful My Grandmother's Glass Eye: A Look at Poetry (Atlantic). Feisty, provocative, learned, passionate - it is a seminal, lasting work."
Guardian
"Craig Raine still walks among us, a brilliant and passionate observer"
THES
"Witty and wide ranging... giving bad readers (Tom Paulin and John Carey) a confident kicking along the way"
New Statesman