From the Valley of Bronze Camels: A Primer, Some Lectures, & A Boondoggle on Poetry

Jane Miller's essays explore the work of poets and painters, the use of the question mark in poetry, surrealism's positive and negative aspects, identity politics, ancient Chinese musical instruments, and the political implications of language. She also interrogates the degeneration and regeneration of words and comes out against forms of surrealism, narrative, jargon, rhetoric, irony, and appropriation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 152 pages
Publication date: 26 July 2022
Publisher: The University of Michigan Press

Jane Miller is a passionate poet who delves into the works of renowned figures like Adrienne Rich, Paul Celan, Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelstam, and Federico García Lorca, as well as contemporary painters such as Caravaggio and Paul Klee. In her thought-provoking essays, Miller explores the use of the question mark in poetry's history and its role in revealing poetic voice. She examines the positive and negative aspects of surrealism on the contemporary poem, its anti-feminist origins in France, its contemporary usage, and the benefits of super-real images. Miller also delves into the impact of identity politics on the imagination, highlighting the resonance of ancient Chinese musical instruments in American poems and the aural integrity of the lyric poem. She interrogates the political implications of language and the degeneration and regeneration of words. In an essay about what she dares not say about poetry, Miller takes a stance against forms of surrealism, narrative, jargon, rhetoric, irony, and appropriation. This masterful work serves as both a guide for young writers and a window into the mind of a writer who has honed her craft through a lifetime of writing, reading, and exploring the world. Miller's ideas, influenced by feminist, lesbian, and international works, are evident in her writing, and her writing, in turn, has influenced ideas.

Dimension: 203 x 137 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780472075423