Part 8 - Fictive Certainties, The Roots

Additions to the Parts of Poetry after Reading Fictive Certainties

THE ROOTS

The inspiration for the topic of this paper came after reading The Flexible Lyric and being in awe of Ellen Bryant Voigt's meticulous examination of poems in the essays throughout the book. However, I first thought about the close reading of poetry after I purchased Harold Bloom's The Art of Reading Poetry for a dollar from a bookstore that was closing down, three years ago. The Art of Reading Poetry is a slim volume, just 78 pages long. The quote from Bloom on the back of the book is, "The work of great poetry is to aid us to become free artists of ourselves." A fitting quote considering the direction this paper has taken. I have read sections in fits and starts since I owned it. Upon reading Robert Duncan's Fictive Certainties I took a break from the density and ethereal quality of that book, and re-read the more sober Art of Reading Poetry -- in its entirety – in hopes that it would help me process what I had read from Duncan.