Suddenness and the Composition of Poetic Thought

Employing an extensive archive of interview materials with major Anglophone poets, this book uncovers how they think in the moments of composition, providing a lucid account of the links between poetic composition and live performative thinking.

Paul Magee is associate professor of poetry at the University of Canberra. He is author of the ethnography From Here to Tierra del Fuego and two books of verse Cube Root of Book and Stone Postcard.

Acknowledgements Introduction: On the Gradual Production of Thoughts Whilst Speaking Part I Revising towards Spontaneity 1. We Do Not Know What We Are Going to Say until We Have Said It 2. "That's the Illusion You're Supposed to Get" 3. Scepticisms Part II Two Histories of Sudden Verse 4. Romantic Revision and Its Others 5. The Iliad and The Odyssey Were Rapidly Composed 6. The Desk as Stage 7. Oral Verse in Performance Part III Writing Is Speaking 8. Not-Quite Speech 9. Writing as "Oral Dictated" 10. Consciousness as a Window of Three Seconds 11. Song Part IV Suddenness and Art 12. The Split in the Archive 13. "Great Goblets of Magnolialight" References Index About the Author