Allusion to the Poets [Paperback]

Christopher Ricks is among the best known living critics. His third collection of essays, several newly written for this book, is strongly focused on the theme of how writers--especially but not exclusively poets--make use of other writers' work: from the subtle courtesies of different kinds of allusion to the extreme discourtesy of plagiarism.

Prefatory Note
I.
The Poet as Heir
Dryden and Pope
Burns
Wordsworth
Byron
Keats
Tennyson
II.
In the Company of Allusion
Plagiarism
The Pursuit of Metaphor
Loneliness and Poetry
A. E. Housman and 'the colour of his hair'
Yvor Winters: Allusion and Pseudo-Reference
David Ferry and the Shades of the Dead
Acknowledgements
Index

Ricks examines the transfer of poetic power in his brilliant and witty study.... Ricks [is] a painstaking scholar and editor as well as the most stringent and imaginative of close readers.... No other critic in our age...has dared to isolate this wonderfully ramifying, richly human subject [allusion]...and given it such intensive treatment. With this book about poets and their gratitude, Ricks has earned ours. --The Guardian

Chistopher Ricks'sAllusion to the Poetsmade it clear again just what is so great about a great literary critic. --Adam Phillips, Books of the Year,Observer Review

[These] energetic essays [are] witty and engaging meditations...on the relationships between poem and cultural heritage.... A dazzling performance, especially considering the rapidity and variety of [Ricks's] references.... Consistently intellectual, challenging, and stimulating. --Choice

Allusion to the Poetssparkles with an enjoyment that answers repeatedly to the delighted complexity and play of alert poetic imagination: for a long time to come, all good critics will be Christopher Ricks's heirs. --Peter McDonald,Times Literary Supplement