Who is ozymandias john fuller

Poetry sets itself up to be nothing more nor less than a puzzle. This has always been the case. It is not only the cussedly obtuse later work of Geoffrey Hill. Shakespeare gloried in it, too: that wish to postpone the enjoyment of the poem by writing it in such a teasing way that its meaning and emotional impact accrue very gradually. Poetry is not, after all, discursive prose.

It is not something that you can hurry to understand. Yet the very fact that poems are often so short, so keen to speed towards the final tape, almost inclines the reader to want to hurry too. You will likely come a cropper. There is, for example, that fundamental clash between the spoken language and the figurative — the strange world of the metaphor — which leaves meaning hanging suspended between tantalising possibilities.

William Empson wrote very densely and opaquely about all of this. It's interesting to compare this to the other recent book I read about poetry, Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder.

Both authors are poets themselves, but where the American Zapruder want's to pull down the barriers that stop ordinary people appreciating poetry, Fuller an Oxford don resolutely builds them back up. Poems are puzzles to be decoded, according to Fuller, who then goes on to decode a bunch of them in virtuoso style, building on his long years of expertise in a way that is impressive but It's interesting to compare this to the other recent book I read about poetry, Why Poetry by Matthew Zapruder.

Poems are puzzles to be decoded, according to Fuller, who then goes on to decode a bunch of them in virtuoso style, building on his long years of expertise in a way that is impressive but would be impossible for others. There's pleasure to be gained from this, for sure, but he also has the air of a stuffy pedant, and he pretty much exclusively cleaves to the male canon, so you'll get plenty of Browning and Arnold and Eliot and co.

This was published in , but it could easily have been published in I enjoyed this in parts, but perhaps a little scholarly for light reading. I might go back to it at a later date, and read all the poems properly and learn a bit more about some of the poets, as there were a few I had no idea about.

Oct 25, Joe Tristram rated it liked it. Giving up really rather than finished. I found it worthwhile and interesting for the first third, and then it felt as though the ideas had run out and it was just a list of other things about other poems strung together to make it long enough to publish:. Mar 23, Rob Manwaring rated it liked it.

Picked this up in the local library, whilst Tilly and Tess were choosing their own options. Just for the record, why on Earth did i read something like this at Uni? I might have had a better shot at getting a slightly better grade for Wyn Thomas's class View 1 comment. Interesting early chapters on the mystery of poetry and the use of riddles in poetry.

The poem isn't a puzzle to the poet But reading for pleasure has its joys, The sound of the song, Short, epic or long, Remembering emotions aren't toys. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one ». Readers also enjoyed. About John Fuller. John Fuller. John Fuller is an English poet, author and critic. Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. This Is Shakespeare.

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