John Crowe Ransom Summary

Biography EssayJohn Crowe Ransom was one of the most versatile and significant men of letters of his generation. As poet Isabel Gambel MacCafrey has written, "he provided a small but accurate mirror o... Read more

John Crowe Ransom was one of the most versatile and significant men of letters of his generation. As poet, Isabel Gambel MacCafrey has written, "he provided a small but accurate mirror of the modern ... Read more

In the following essay, Vesterman analyzes the meter of “Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter.” … metre is fundamental in the problem posed to the artist … Here le... Read more

In the following essay, Cowan elucidates Ransom's Southern attitude toward women as evinced in his poetry. The poems of John Crowe Ransom have been held in high regard during his lifetime an... Read more

In the following essay, Brooks recollects his personal friendship with Ransom and examines several of his poems that provide insight into his life. Every poet to some degree reveals himself in his ... Read more

In the following essay, Russell offers a thematic and stylistic overview of Ransom's verse. After reading the giants like Yeats and Frost, and the lesser but still great talents of Robinson ... Read more

In the following review of the reissue of Ransom's Selected Poems, Leithauser determines the reasons for the poet's waning popularity and urges a reappraisal and greater attention to his... Read more

In the following essay, Romine examines the speaker in Ransom's verse and argues that “the ironic stance usually ascribed to this figure fails to explain fully its role.” The N... Read more

In the following essay, Hecht discusses Ransom as a modernist and an ironist and explicates his poems “Captain Carpenter” and “Philomela.” Any conventional list of the g... Read more

In the following essay, Tillinghast discusses Ransom as a significant minor American poet. For a generation of readers influenced by the literary criticism of T. S. Eliot, the distinction between &... Read more

Critical Essay by Jascha Kessler [Here] is a poet of middling ambition and gifts, with a stubborn individuality, a poet who has been a most learned and lifelong critic and theoretician of the art, wh... Read more

Critical Essay by W. Potter Woodbery The greatest stumbling-block to understanding ["The Equilibrists"] is the moral contradiction that holds Ransom's lovers in their state of eq... Read more

Critical Essay by Thomas Merton Mr. Ransom has written ["The World's Body,"] a distinguished book about poetry—a volume of essays that consider the subject from various st... Read more

Critical Essay by Kenneth Burke In addition to its function as a statement of attitude towards poetry, The New Criticism lays out a project for the technical analysis of poetry (an exposition that is... Read more

Critical Essay by William J. Handy The real contribution of the New Critics lies not so much in their providing a method for examining a poem as it does in their providing an account of the essential... Read more

Critical Essay by John L. Stewart As one looks back over Ransom's writings on art, poetry, and criticism, the qualities which appear are not always favorable to his standing as a theorist. Tho... Read more