Poetry: A Very Short Introduction - Bernard O’Donoghue

Written by Bernard O’Donoghue
Read by Roger Clark
Format: M4B
Bitrate: 128 Kbps
Unabridged

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins
Release date: 04-14-20

Poetry, arguably, has a greater range of conceptual meaning than perhaps any other term in English. At the most basic level everyone can recognize it - it is a kind of literature that uses special linguistic devices of organization and expression for aesthetic effect.

However, far grander claims have been made for poetry than this - such as Shelley’s that the poets “are the unacknowledged legislators of the world,” and that poetry is “a higher truth.”

In this Very Short Introduction, Bernard O’Donoghue provides a fascinating look at the many different forms of writing which have been called “poetry” - from the Greeks to the present day. As well as questioning what poetry is, he asks what poetry is for, and considers contemporary debates on its value. Is there a universality to poetry? And does it have a duty of public utility and responsibility?