Anything Like Us is a collection of poems with a critical introduction. In this introduction, I explore modern alternatives to Romantic and Neo-Romantic lyric expression. I conclude that a contemporary lyric that desires to be, in some fashion, about itself, must exhibit an acceptance of the mediating influences of time and language, while cultivating an inter-subjective point-of-view that does not insist too much on the authority of a single, coherent voice. The poems in Anything Like Us reflect, in both form and content, many of the conclusions advanced in the introduction. Nearly all the poems concern the desire for, and failure to find, meaningful connections in an uncertain world .

My thesis proceeds from recent critical discussion about the status of the aesthetic object after the decline of high theory of the 1980s and 1990s. The term “singularity”, articulated by critics working with the ideas of Martin Heidegger, has been variously applied to the artwork in the attempt to describe the generative power of art as separable from any historical or political determinants that may shape it. What makes the experience of art “singular”, that is, an experience governed by the artwork itself, without the scaffolding of theory or context? Such a question, I argue, actually demands a return to the first principles of close textual criticism, along with a rigorous approach to genre. The lyric poetry of W. H. Auden provides the ideal material for “singular” criticism. Unpacking the term lyric and redefining it according to Auden’s particular poetics, I consider how Auden inaugurated a new manner of experiencing modern poetry based on the notion, implicit to the conventional understanding of lyric, of vocality. After an account of Heidegger’s influence on contemporary ideas on aesthetics, I consult the work of Theodor Adorno, and later Hannah Arendt, in order to situate Auden’s early work in a European context, opposing the Atlanticism which has governed the vast majority of Auden criticism. Working to restore the power of the first encounter with the poem to historically and philosophically nuanced textual analysis, I present the key works of Auden’s early corpus in a new light.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Queensland, 1994.

Thesis (M.A.)--Villanova University, 2009. / English Dept. Includes bibliographical references.

A collection of poetry.

A collection of poems.

After Horses is a a collection of narrative and verse poems centered loosely around the idea or theme of how to create meaning from the fracture and detritus of daily life. Also under obsessive consideration throughout: loneliness, the risk of human connection, the risk of a lack of human connection, the impossibility of language, hope as illuminating and good thing, hope as desperate and devouring thing, and an underlying fear and awareness of the fact that no one can be sure of what ultimately matters, anyway. / Master of Fine Arts

Closure is one of the most important putative goals for highly structured Renaissance verse. Elements of structure—for example, sophisticated prosody or the embedding of a poem within a web of intertextual relationships—determine how poets work toward closure. This project explores how verse forms and genre manifest poets’ attempts to create resolution, and, significantly, how often the challenges of the process instead become the object of focus. Developing a New Formalist approach that focuses on how literary forms are inherently responsive (both to the social conventions that inform various genres and to the expressive goals of individual authors), I examine texts in four important Renaissance poetic genres: epyllion (William Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis [1593]), satire (Joseph Hall’s Virgidemiae [1598, 1599]), religious lyric (George Herbert’s The Temple [1633]), and pastoral elegy (John Milton’s Epitaphium Damonis [1639] and Lycidas [1637, 1645]). These works illuminate some of the most significant strategies of authors who often meditate on the appeal of definitive, resolved conclusions and also on the complex ways their works become conditioned by the hope and struggle for resolution.

Orientador: Maria Lúcia Outeiro Fernandes / Banca: Cristiane Rodrigues de Souza / Banca: Fábio Gerônimo Mota Diniz / Resumo: Um dos maiores nomes da poesia portuguesa contemporânea, Nuno Júdice possui vasta obra marcada, segundo Ida Alves (2006), pela presença de uma poesia feita sobre ruínas. Suas características mais marcantes são o diálogo que promove com outras artes, as reflexões filosóficas e principalmente uma visão crítica sobre a própria poesia. Tais características, ligadas a um ambiente sombrio, de espaços desabitados ou abandonados, onde se insere um eu-lírico consciente de sua própria produção poética, são algumas das marcas de uma poesia singular, marcada por vestígios do passado. Júdice iniciou sua produção com "A Noção de Poema", em que já se destacava pela retomada do sujeito lírico e pela plena ciência do poema como o lugar de discussão da linguagem poética, seus mistérios e sua tradição. Atrelado a esta produção e crítica poética, o poeta algarvio demonstra grande interesse pelo tema do amor e sua configuração como parte integrante de toda uma tradição lírica amorosa. São muitos os poemas em que o tema do amor aparece, porém sempre relacionado a um sujeito lírico melancólico e consciente da criação do poema e de sua artificialidade. A melancolia do eulírico, as imagens obscuras e a nostalgia são características de uma lírica amorosa cujo principal aspecto é a ausência. O poema parece ser o único lugar onde o sujeito encontra uma possibilidade de fugir do presente e da ausência da amada. Neste trabalho, buscaremos verificar, portanto, como esta poesia se insere numa tradição da lírica amorosa ocidental, procurando evidenciar os artifícios de que o autor se utiliza para retomar o imaginário do amor, questionar e reapresentar a subjetividade e a emotividade, recriando em sua obra um lirismo amoroso típico da contemporaneidade / Abstract: One of the greatest names of contemporary Portuguese poetry, Nuno Júdice's wide work is marked, according to Ida Alves (2006), by the presence of a poetry built over ruins. His most decisive features are the dialogue established with other forms of art, the philosophical reflections and, above all the others, the critical look over his own poetry. Such features, related to dark environments, uninhabited or abandoned places and the presence of a poetic persona aware of its own poetic production, are some of the main characteristics of a singular poetry marked by references of the past. Júdice began his production with "A Noção de Poema". In this work, the retake of the poetic persona and the awareness of the poetry as the ideal place to discuss the poetic language, its mysteries and traditions, are salient. Attached to this poetic criticism and production, the Algarve poet demonstrates his interest in love as a theme of poetry and its configuration as an integrant part of a loving lyrical tradition. Love is present in many of his poems, although it is always related to a melancholic lyrical subject and conscious of the poem creation and its artificiality. The poetic persona melancholy, dark images and nostalgia, are the characteristics of a loving lyric marked by absence. The poem seems to be the only place where the subject finds a possibility to run away from the present and from the absence of his beloved woman. In the present work, we seek to verify how this poetry can be inserted in a loving lyric western tradition highlighting the strategies used by the author to retake the imaginary of love, to question and restate the subjectivity and the emotionality, and to recreate a contemporaneity typical loving lyric in his work / Mestre

Although Pindar’s victory songs, or epinikia, were commissioned and performed to celebrate athletic victories, they present persistent reflections on the narrow limits of human prosperity, the inexorable cycle of success and failure, and the impossibility of appropriating any aspect of a godly nature. The present work provides a close reading of the Pythian series to illustrate how Pindar uses prayer, myth and gnomai to secure the moral and psychological reintegration of the athletic victor back into his close-knit community upon his homecoming (νόστος). As a re-integration rite, the challenging and dark elements of mortal limitation and failure are read as prophylactic statements against the destructive effects of hybris (ὕβρις). The Odes rest upon an archaic cosmology of reciprocal and harmonious exchange between humans themselves and between humans and the gods which is captured by the principle of charis or grace (χάρις). Ὕβρις is a breach of this reciprocity and the antithesis of χάρις since it is the unilateral claim of property, prestige, or privilege as well as the transgression against the divine dispensation which governs the cosmos (κόσμος). Modern psychological research shows how such concern for, and such precaution against, ὕβρις may be prudent given that victory fosters a drive for dominance. / Graduate / 0294 / gebeauva@uvic.ca