美国国家公共电台 NPR Poetry's Not Dead, And Here Are Books To Help Appreciate It

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Our poetry reviewer Tess Taylor observes that every few years, it seems, poetry is declared dead. And in response, books are published about how to bring poetry back to life or how to better appreciate it. Well, Tess read this year's crop so that you don't have to.

TESS TAYLOR, BYLINE¹: As it turns out, the best books about loving poetry this year helped me read alongside witty², accessible guides, a bit like getting to tour my favorite art museum with a generous, whip-smart curator. I ended up loving "A Little Book On Form" by Robert Haas and "Why Poetry" by Matthew Zapruder as much as anything else I read this year.

The Haas book explores the different forms a poem can take, but it's also about how the shapes of phrases and sentences interact with their meanings, about our histories of using and needing these shapes and about how the dance between shape and meaning can make us as readers feel more alive. Haas' prose is terrific, and it's fun to read whether you want to write poetry more seriously or you just love language and you want to be closer to its motor.

Haas offers a number of really surprising ways of reading. For instance, I loved how he categorized the form of the haiku as a particularly interesting one-sentence poem, like a unit of bright observation. Here's one. (Reading) Not knowing it's in a kitchen, the fish cooling in a tub. I also loved how Haas compared ancient Almanac poems like Virgil's "Georgics" to contemporary poems that now teach us how to read and report on the world around us. Haas zigzags³ through literary history, and he made me hungry to read more deeply and widely both in the past and in the present.

My other favorite book was Zapruder's partly because it was irreverent, skeptical⁴ and also generous. I loved the moment when Zapruder compares Keats' famous figure of silence and slow time to a cool couple, someone my wife and I would feel quite OK about going on vacation with. Zapruder wants us to feel like we can hang out with poems just like we hang out with our lovers or our friends. He also wants us to think about what spending time with poetic⁵ language might offer each of us. He argues that poetry helps us discover the slipperiness of both language and our imaginations and that poetry's daydreamyness (ph) and indirections can create space in which to feel more human.

Zapruder's canny⁶ chapters brought great poems together, and his readings also brought me back to my own daydreamy self. It turned out that thinking about why and how I love poetry in the presence of another passionate⁷ reader left me feeling renewed. Both the page and the world seemed to burn a little more brightly. I felt a bit more writerly and a bit more human, too.

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SIEGEL: That's Tess Taylor talking about "Why Poetry" and "A Little Book On Form." Her most recent book is "Work & Days."

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1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 witty   

adj.机智的，风趣的

参考例句：

• Her witty remarks added a little salt to the conversation.她的妙语使谈话增添了一些风趣。
• He scored a bull's-eye in their argument with that witty retort.在他们的辩论中他那一句机智的反驳击中了要害。

3 zigzags   

n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。
• History moves in zigzags and by roundabout ways. 历史的发展是曲折的，迂回的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

5 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

6 canny   

adj.谨慎的，节俭的

参考例句：

• He was far too canny to risk giving himself away.他非常谨慎，不会冒险暴露自己。
• But I'm trying to be a little canny about it.但是我想对此谨慎一些。

7 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。