Reviews for The Philosophy of the Limit

The average rating for The Philosophy of the Limit based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-06-16 00:00:00 Vivek Bhardwaj The prose poem has always been a form, admittedly, that I've never known much about. My reading of the prose poem has usually led to the question that I imagine I'm not the only one asking: "Isn't there a way the line could actually be utilized here?" The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry doesn't try to explicitly answer that question. Instead, the essays within are used as catalysts to get into the minds of how actual poets write and discuss their prose poems. I don't want to overuse the phrase "personal essay" here, and though there are at least a few essays that are more scholarly, many of them are entertaining and insightful enough not only to give us a sense of who the poet is, but also how they go about creating their art. Though this seems obvious, we've all read essays about poetry that become too long, stuffy, circuitous, confusing, etc. In this anthology, however, most of the essays are around 3-7 pages long, and each includes 2 poems by each poet. So not only is the variation great'both the included poems and writing style from each poet'but after reading the entire anthology, it becomes an easier task for a professor who wants to teach from it; out of 34 essays, there are many to pick and choose from. That said, at under 200 pages, this would also work as a great primary text for a full semester. Insightful, engaging, varied, highly accessible, and handsomely designed, the editors and the press have done a great job here through and through. Whether it's for personal enjoyment, or you're looking to find an anthology on the prose poem for a future course you're teaching, this is where you want to start.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-12-05 00:00:00 Patrick Crosby If you're interested in exotic (or drab, maybe) birds like prose poetry, this is a fine place to sit and chat with 34 practitioners who tell us what prose poetry means to them. After each short essay, the writer/poet offers two to three of his or her own prose poems just to show us what s/he means. As for definitions, good luck. The long and short of it is this: prose poetry is either both prose and poetry or neither prose nor poetry. Pick your poison or ambrosia. But it appears to be liberating to some, especially for poems that don't seem to come alive in lines and stanzas and white space. You will also learn that this new-fangled beast isn't as new-fangled as you think. Some old French dudes were at it some time ago. Guys with names like Rimbaud and Baudelaire. For me, like auditing a course. And yes, I've been a good student and tried my hand at it, too. Inspired. Anything that inspires writing is a good thing by definition. Here's a quote from the final essay by David Shumate: "The prose poem is often the object of derision among poetic purists. They consider the loss of the poetic line a final blasphemy. They've relinquished rhyme. And meter. But never the line itself. They claim a poem must be vertical. A poem must look like a poem. "Maybe they're right. Maybe there is a special purgatory for our kind. Perhaps I'm already a resident there. That would explain a lot... "But I've overheard some fairly comical conversations between poets concerning the proper placement of a line break. Should it go here? Or here? Or here? Often it comes just to the brink of fisticuffs. Then the poet goes off and reads the poem to an audience, completely ignoring the line breaks he fought so hard to justify. Often if they do read their own line breaks rigidly, the overall effect can be a sort of literary stutter as if there might be a sudden shortage of air in the room."