Keynote
One of our most perceptive critics on the ways that poets develop poems, a career, and a life
Book Title
We Begin in Gladness
Subtitle
How Poets Progress
Cover Image
- “Teicher proposes a well-reasoned alternative: to read poets not so much by their experiences but by the evolution of their words. . . . Teicher perceptively identifies the philosophical undercurrents in much of 20th-and 21st-century poetry and highlights important patterns of poetic influence.”—The New York Times Book Review
Body
“The staggering thing about a life’s work is it takes a lifetime to complete,” Craig Morgan Teicher writes in these luminous essays. We Begin in Gladness considers how poets start out, how they learn to hear themselves, and how some offer us that rare, glittering thing: lasting work. Teicher traces the poetic development of the works of Sylvia Plath, John Ashbery, Louise Glück, and Francine J. Harris, among others, to illuminate the paths they forged—by dramatic breakthroughs or by slow increments, and always by perseverance. We Begin in Gladness is indispensable for readers curious about the artistic life and for writers wondering how they might light out—or even scale the peak of the mountain.
Though it seems, at first, like an art of speaking, poetry is an art of listening. The poet trains to hear clearly and, as much as possible, without interruption, the voice of the mind, the voice that gathers, packs with meaning, and unpacks the language the poet knows. It can take a long time to learn to let this voice speak without getting in its way. This slow learning, the growth of this habit of inner attentiveness, is poetic development, and it is the substance of the poet’s art. Of course, this growth is rarely steady, never linear, and is sometimes not actually growth but diminishment—that’s all part of the compelling story of a poet’s way forward.
—from the Introduction
Though it seems, at first, like an art of speaking, poetry is an art of listening. The poet trains to hear clearly and, as much as possible, without interruption, the voice of the mind, the voice that gathers, packs with meaning, and unpacks the language the poet knows. It can take a long time to learn to let this voice speak without getting in its way. This slow learning, the growth of this habit of inner attentiveness, is poetic development, and it is the substance of the poet’s art. Of course, this growth is rarely steady, never linear, and is sometimes not actually growth but diminishment—that’s all part of the compelling story of a poet’s way forward.
—from the Introduction
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About the Author
Credit: Sarah Tew
Praise
- “Craig Morgan Teicher explores how poets progress and learn from one another in We Begin in Gladness. This fantastic collection of essays begins with insightful descriptions of poetry as ‘an art of listening’ and the poet’s task as hearing clearly. . . . Every section will deepen your understanding of the creative arc and will make you rethink what’s possible when one continues to forge ahead.”—The Washington Post
- “Teicher’s best insights are ultimately about poetry’s connection to the sublime.”—The Christian Science Monitor
- “In [We Begin in Gladness]—informed by Teicher’s considerable work as both a poet and a critic, and imbued with a sensibility that is as comfortable in the lyrical mode as it is in the critical—Teicher considers the idea of poetic voice, as well as its complement, form.”—The Atlantic
- “We Begin in Gladness is well worth reading for its celebration of the art, and for placing poetry as a necessity in today’s frenzied society. . . . Teicher’s examination of poets’ artistic maturation is an engaging topic.”—NPR Books
