Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1: The Invention of the Modern Poet
2: Acts of Judgement: Making a National Body of Poetry
3: Scholar-Gipsies
4: Modernist Cybernetics and the Poetry of Knowledge
5: Men, Women, and American Classrooms
Coda: The Poet's Work
Index

About the Author

Robert Crawford is Professor of Modern Scottish Literature at the University of St Andrews, and author of four volumes of poetry and four books of criticism. He is co-editor (with Simon Armitage) of The Penguin Book of Poetry from Britain and Ireland since 1945.

Reviews

Crawford's descriptions are eloquent. Michael Schmidt, The Independent This book opens intellectual borders ... Crawford comes out as a poet in the first person, breaking with "impersonality", demanding a place in the story ... This "I" makes the book beguiling and accountable. Michael Schmidt, The Independent Crawford amusingly exposes the persistent "wild man" pose of some poets - Frost and Yeats in particular ... He speaks up convincingly for several marginalized figures; there is an excellent discussion of Hugh MacDiarmid's later poetry. Jeremy Noel-Tod, Times Literary Supplement Endlessly fascinating and provocative book ... The Modern Poet is an important book. Impeccably researched and passionately argued, it isn't a dry contribution to bibliography but a call to imaginative action. Brian Morton, Sunday Herald