Descent Into Temptation

Dark Airs

In discussions of American poetry since World War II, the work of John Berryman has become increasingly neglected and marginalized. Critics have overwhelmingly chosen to favour the notion that he is an academic, 'establishment' poet whose career can comfortably be described as a move from New Critical traditionalism towards self-absorbed confessionalism. This study shows how such a narrow understanding of Berryman's work is reflective of a broader critical inclination towards a codification of the literary canon as a duel between competing factions of a formalist, establishment 'mainstream' and an experimentalist, countercultural 'avant-garde'. By examining the extent to which Berryman's poetry engages with the complex religiopolitical climate of Cold War American culture, this study exposes the inadequacy of the paradigm of mainstream traditionalism in relation to his work. In doing so, it opens up threads of comparative possibility between his work and that of poets ordinarily segregated from him by divisive conceptions of the literary canon. As such, this volume provides a reconsideration of Berryman's work that simultaneously asks broader questions about the nature of the American poetic canon and established definitions of 'postmodern' poetry.

A Study in Temptations

God Is Ever New

With this concise anthology of Benedict XVI's lessons on the Christian life—on faith, hope, love, joy, youth, holiness, and freedom—readers find themselves walking side by side with a great spiritual father. "Benedict XVI", as Pope Francis reflects in the book's foreword, "knew how to bring heart and mind, thought and feeling, rationality and emotion in concert with one another—a fruitful model of how one can tell the world about the shattering power of the Gospel." The crystallized excerpts in God Is Ever New are drawn from lectures, speeches, homilies, and documents across the course of Benedict's papacy. Each grants a glimpse of a God who is full of surprises, never dull. Here, Benedict speaks not in the voice of an academic theologian but of a pastor, a companion on the journey. Let these poetic insights of Benedict XVI accompany you daily: in prayer, in adoration, in study, and in love.