Publisher's Synopsis
"As astute a book about poetry as anyone has produced in the last five years."-David Lehman, Newsday
"A lively and enlivening work of criticism."-Library Journal
"Hollander, himself a fine poet, is such a generalist; and Melodious Guile, to my mind the best of his critical books, takes its place . . . among the very few enjoyable and enriching studies of how poetry works."-Alastair Fowler, London Review of Books
"An incisive display of beautifully integrated erudition. John Hollander demonstrates, just as post-structuralism is waning, that there are other, more cogent theoretical terms for thinking about poetry and for a return to the reading of poetry."-Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley
Nominated for a 1988 National Book Circle Award in Criticism