Lyric in Its Times: Temporalities in Verse, Breath, and Stone

In this important new intervention, leading poet and critic John Wilkinson explores the material life of the lyric poem. How does the lyric - considered as an object, as an event - grapple with permanence and impermanence, the rhythms of change and the passing of time? Drawing on new insights from contemporary philosophy and object-oriented ontology, psychoanalysis and the visual arts, The Lyric in Its Times includes innovative and insightful new readings of work by a wide range of lyric poets, from Shakespeare, Blake and Shelley to Charles Baudelaire, Frank O'Hara and J.H. Prynne.

John Wilkinson is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at the University of Chicago, USA. His previous publications include the poetry collections Reckitt’s Blue (2013) and Ghost Nets (2016) and the critical book The Lyric Touch (2007).