The Advantage of Lyric: Essays on Feeling in Poetry

In the title essay, Professor Hardy argues for the special advantage of lyric over other other literary genres in conveying intense private feelings publicly. She then gives detailed consideration to the lyric poetry of John Donne, Arthur Hugh Clough, and a group of poets central to the modernist canon: Hopkins, Yeats, Aden, Dylan Thomas, and Sylvia Plath. Those interested in W.H. Auden will find the book of particular value, since Auden occupies a central place in it. W.H. Auden has frequently been held up as the modern example par excellence of a ‘public poet’ whose works betray relatively little in the way of personal emotion. In the chapters entitled ‘The Reticence of W.H. Auden, Thirties to Sixties: A Face and a Map’ Barbara Hardy shows the inadequacy of that characterization and opens the way for a fresh appreciation of Auden’s achievement as a poet. Readers interested in modern poetry generally and all readers acquainted with Barbara Hardy’s previous books will find the book of importance.