Worlds Woven Together: Essays on Poetry and Poetics

Worlds Woven Together is a book that explores the politics and mechanics of poetry through close, imaginative readings of a variety of writers. It challenges traditional models of criticism and seeks to provide alternatives for readers interested in the relationship between literature and politics. The book features essays on neglected authors and well-known writers, and explores the connections between poems and cultures, between lines of verse and the lives we lead.

Format: Hardback
Length: 296 pages
Publication date: 19 July 2022
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Writing about poetry is a complex endeavor, influenced by two distinct models: academic scholarship and literary journalism. While academic scholarship aims to distance the reader from the poem and erase the critic's personality, literary journalism puts the critic front and center, often prioritizing value judgments. However, entrenched practices and patterns of privilege limit both perspectives, particularly when it comes to minoritized poets and poets from the Global South, where restrictive notions of identity overshadow stylistic innovations.

In his book "Worlds Woven Together," critic, poet, and scholar Vidyan Ravinthiran offers a fresh approach to poetry analysis. He delves into close, imaginative readings of a diverse range of writers, challenging traditional approaches. Ravinthiran's essays are open-ended, attentive, and curious, displaying a passionate and subjective perspective while remaining keenly analytical and investigative. The book explores neglected authors as well as those well-known in the West, seeing politics as inseparable from literary form. Ravinthiran is fascinated by the relationship between the creative consciousness and the violences of history.

The book features essays on a wide array of writers, including Mir Taqi Mir, Ana Blandiana, A. K. Ramanujan, Marianne Moore, Eunice de Souza, Czeslaw Milosz, Ted Hughes, Rae Armantrout, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Galway Kinnell, Dawn Lundy Martin, and Vahni Capildeo. Through these essays, Ravinthiran reveals serendipitous connections between poems and cultures, between lines of verse and the lives we lead. "Worlds Woven Together" is a captivating read for all readers interested in the mechanics and politics of poetry.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231202749