Overview

Secular Lyric interrogates the distinctively individual ways that Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson transformed classical, romantic, and early modern forms of lyric expression to address the developing conditions of Western modernity, especially the heterogeneity of believers and beliefs in an increasingly secular society. Analyzing historically and formally how these poets inscribed the pressures of the modern crowd in the text of their poems, John Michael shows how the masses appear in these poets' work as potential readers to be courted and resisted, often at the same time. Unlike their more conventional contemporaries, Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson resist advising, sermonizing or consoling their audiences. They resist most familiar senses of meaning as well. For them, the processes of signification in print rather than the communication of truths become central to poetry, which in turn becomes a characteristic of modern verse in the Western world. Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson, in idiosyncratic but related ways, each disrupt conventional expectations while foregrounding language's material density, thereby revealing both the potential and the limitations of art in the modern age.

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9780823279715

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Reviews

In this thoughtful and original study John Michael explores the ways in which Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson adapted and re-shaped the lyric in response to the challenges of secular modernity. His book will be of interest not only to those wishing to learn more about these three poets but to those curious about the fate of the lyric in a world increasingly defined by secularism and by all the paradoxes such a development can bring. -- Kerry Larson

In this thoughtful and original study John Michael explores the ways in which Poe, Whitman, and Dickinson adapted and re-shaped the lyric in response to the challenges of secular modernity. His book will be of interest not only to those wishing to learn more about these three poets but to those curious about the fate of the lyric in a world increasingly defined by secularism and by all the paradoxes such a development can bring. -- Kerry Larson * University of Michigan *

Author Information

John Michael is Professor of English and of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester where he is also Director of American Studies.

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