How Long to Read A Long Essay on the Long Poem

How Long Does it Take to Read A Long Essay on the Long Poem?

It takes the average reader 5 hours and 17 minutes to read A Long Essay on the Long Poem by Rachel Blau DuPlessis

Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more

Description

"In A Long Essay on the Long Poem, DuPlessis invokes a quote from Ronald Johnson: "Americans like to write big poems, even if people don't read them." It's a joke, in part, but also a telling indication of the difficulty of the subject. Long poems are elusive, particularly in the slippery forms that have emerged in the postmodern mode. DuPlessis quotes both Nathaniel Mackey and Anne Waldman in metaphorizing the poem as a Box: both in the sense of a vessel that contains, and as a machine that processes, an instrument on which language is played. To reckon with a particularly noncompliant variant of a notoriously slippery form, DuPlessis works in a polyvalent mode, a hybrid of critical analysis and speculative essay. She resists a single-focus approach to the long poem and does not venture a bravura, one-size-all thesis. Yet there is an arc of argument here, even as the book ranges across five chapters and a host of disparate writers. DuPlessis roughly divides the long poem and the long poets into three genres: epics, quests, and something she terms "assemblages." The poets surveyed will be familiar for most readers of twentieth-century American and English poetry: T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Alice Notley, Anne Waldman, Nathaniel Mackey, Ron Silliman, and Robert Duncan. But rather than attempting a definitive treatment of such a long roster, DuPlessis assumes a certain familiarity in order to focus on key works. A standout example comes in the third chapter, in which DuPlessis reads Dante by way of the modern long poem to generate surprising insights. But she also carefully avoids the self-confirming search for genealogical patterns (e.g., Eliot to Pound to Williams to Zukofsky). Instead she deliberately seeks to see different but intersecting patterns of connection between poems, a nexus rather than a lineage. In doing so she works around the metatextual challenge of the long poem and of her own attempt to "essay" it: how to encompass "everything." The end result is a fascinating and generous work that defies neat categorization as anything other than essential"--

How long is A Long Essay on the Long Poem?

A Long Essay on the Long Poem by Rachel Blau DuPlessis is 308 pages long, and a total of 79,464 words.

This makes it 104% the length of the average book. It also has 97% more words than the average book.

How Long Does it Take to Read A Long Essay on the Long Poem Aloud?

The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 7 hours and 14 minutes to read A Long Essay on the Long Poem aloud.

What Reading Level is A Long Essay on the Long Poem?

A Long Essay on the Long Poem is suitable for students ages 12 and up.

Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.

When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.

Where Can I Buy A Long Essay on the Long Poem?

A Long Essay on the Long Poem by Rachel Blau DuPlessis is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.

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