John Holmes

Darwin's Bards

British and American Poetry in the Age of Evolution

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

"Darwin's Bards is a bracing, original and exciting contribution to our understanding and appreciation of the cultural impact of Darwinism; indeed, John Holmes is to be commended for writing an exhilarating and genuinely interdisciplinary study with revealing insights on every page." Roger Ebbatson, The Thomas Hardy Journal "John Holmes's coverage of the relationship between science and poetry is remarkably complete. He has a scientist's grasp of evolutionary theory and a thorough understanding of both the controversies the theory has engendered and the difficulty many have had in finding meaning in an existence framed by Darwinism. Holmes's investigation of how poetry addresses these problems is unique." Douglas Shedd, The Catherine Ehrman Thoresen '23 and William E. Thoresen Professor of Biology, Randolph College Newly available in paperback, Darwin's Bards is the first comprehensive study of how poets have responded to the ideas of Charles Darwin in over fifty years. John Holmes argues that poetry can have a profound impact on how we think and feel about the Darwinian condition. Is a Darwinian universe necessarily a godless one? What is our own place in the Darwinian universe, and our ecological role here on Earth? How does our kinship with other animals affect how we see them and ourselves? Holmes explores the ways in which some of the most perceptive and powerful British and American poets of the last hundred-and-fifty years have grappled with these questions, from Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, through Thomas Hardy and Robert Frost, to Ted Hughes, Thom Gunn, Amy Clampitt and Edwin Morgan. Including over fifty poems and substantial extracts from many more, Darwin's Bards gives us the chance to experience for ourselves what it can mean to live in a Darwinian world. John Holmes is Chair of the British Society for Literature and Science and a senior lecturer in the Department of English Literature at the University of Reading.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Edinburgh University Press
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 16. Oktober 2013
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 234mm x 152mm x 23mm
• Gewicht: 544g
• ISBN-13: 9780748692071
• ISBN-10: 074869207X
• Artikelnr.: 39541267

Autorenporträt

John Holmes is Professor of Victorian Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham. He is the author of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Late Victorian Sonnet-Sequence: Sexuality, Belief and the Self (Ashgate, 2005) and the editor of Science in Modern Poetry: New Directions (Liverpool University Press, 2012).

Inhaltsangabe

Acknowledgements Preface 1. Poetry in the Age of Darwin Science, poetry and
literary criticism Whose 'Darwinism'? The Darwinian tradition in modern
poetry Poetry and Darwinism in practice: Three poems by Edwin Morgan 2.
Poetry and the 'Non-Darwinian Revolution' Non-Darwinian evolution in late
Victorian poetry Pseudo-Darwinism and bad faith: A. C., Swinburne and
Mathilde Blind Reading A Reading of Earth: George Meredith's later poetry
Doubting progress: Science and evolution in Tennyson's last poems 3. God:
Darwinism, Christianity and theology Happenstance or design? Two sonnets
Natural theology: Robert Browning's 'Caliban upon Setebos' God after
Darwin: Three contemporary American poets and the Book of Job 4. Death:
Darwinism, death and immortality 'In the Woods;: George Meredith Death and
dying: Robinson Jeffers Love and loss: Thomas Hardy 5. Humanity's Place in
Nature 'The exact centre', or just another African ape? 'An idiot on a
crumbling throne': The cosmic perspective 'Earths catastrophe': The
planetary perspective 'All we've got': The human perspective 6. Humans and
Other Animals More than kin and less than kind At 'the master-fulcrum of
violence': Hawks and falcons 'A diminished thing': Songbirds and birdsong
'Someone else additional to him': Deer in modern poetry 7. Love and Sex
Darwinism and sex A Darwinian sex comedy: Constance Haden's 'Evolutional
Erotics' The Darwinian love sonnet: George Meredith and Edna St Vincent
Millay Metamorphosis: Thom Gunn and the human animal 8. On Balance For
better or for worse 'The just proportion of good to ill': Weighing up
evolution Disenchantment and re-enchantment: The power of paradox Darwin's
pagans: Meredith's 'Ode3' and Tennyson's 'Lucretius' Conclusion
Bibliography Index Poems in Darwin's Bards: A. R. Ammons: 'Questionable
Procedures' Philip Appleman: 'How Evolution Came to Indiana',
'Waldorf-Astoria Euphoria' D. M. Black: 'Kew Gardens' Mathilde Blind: The
Ascent of Man [extracts] Robert Browning: 'Caliban upon Setebos' [extracts]
William Canton: 'The Latter Law' [sonnet from a sequence] Stephen Crane: 'A
man said to the universe' Richard Eberhart: 'Sea-Hawk' Robert Frost:
'Design', 'The Oven Bird', 'The Most of It', 'Our Hold on the Planet' Thom
Gunn: 'Adultery', 'The Garden of the Gods' Thomas Hardy: 'Hap', 'Your Last
Drive', 'Rain on a Grave', 'At Castle Boterel', 'An August Midnight', 'The
Darkling Thrush', 'Shelley's Skylark', 'The Fallow Deer at the Lonely
House', 'To Outer Nature', 'On a Fine Morning' Robinson Jeffers: 'Vulture',
Cawdor [extract], 'Rock and Hawk' George Meredith: 'The Woods of
Westermain' [opening lyric], 'In the Woods' [8 lyrics out of a sequence of
9], 'The Lark Ascending' [extracts], Modern Love [3 sonnets from a
sequence], 'Ode to the Spirit of Earth in Autumn' [extracts] Edna St
Vincent Millay: 'The Fawn', 'I shall forget you presently, my dear', Fatal
Interview [2 sonnets from a sequence] Edwin Morgan: 'Eohippus', 'The
Archaeopteryx's Song', 'Trilobites' Lewis Morris: 'Ode of Creation'
[extract] Constance Naden: 'Natural Selection' Agnes Mary Robinson:
'Darwinism' Pattiann Rogers: 'Against the Ethereal', 'The Possible
Suffering of a God During Creation', 'Geocentric' Neil Rollinson: 'My
Father Shaving Charles Darwin' John Addington Symonds: 'An Old Gordian
Knot' [sonnet from a sequence] Alfred Tennyson: 'Flower in the Crannied
Wall', 'By an Evolutionist', 'The Dawn', 'The Making of Man', 'Frater Ave
atque Vale', 'Lucretius' [extracts]