The Practice of Criticism

Many people associate 'practical criticism' with a short-sighted brand of literary analysis which kills a student's interest in literature by drilling him to concentrate narrowly on verbal detail. Handled properly, however, practical criticism can play a vital part in a literature course, especially in the crucial stages in the last years at schools or first university year when many students are coming to literature seriously for the first time. This 1968 book is a useful introduction to practical criticism for students. It offers an impressive range of closely analysed passages and exercises, in prose and verse. Mr Rawlinson considers the problems of the beginner, and discussed the mistakes an misconceptions that sometimes spoil practical criticism courses. In his general discussion of topics such as rhythm, tone and imagery, the author is careful not to be too abstract; throughout the book precept is reinforced by example, theory by practice.

Acknowledgements; Preface: aims and intentions; 1. Practical criticism and 'method'; 2. Rhythm, tone and the dangers of eye-reading; 3. Imagery, metaphor and visualisation; 4. Early and late Shakespearean verse; 5. Two epitaphs for Ben Jonson; 6. An early draft of Blake's London; 7. Relevance and irrelevance in response: another Blake poem; 8. Lyrical grace and warmth: two seventeenth-century lyrics; 9. Emotion and emotionality: Herbert's 'Life' and E. B. Browning's 'Irrepatrableness'; 10. Meaning stated and meaning created: two more Herbert poems; 11. Translations of a Latin poem; 12. Shakespeare's verse: additional exercises; 13. A case of idiosyncrasy: two poems by Hardy; 14. More creation versus statement: Frost and Edward Thomas; 15. Contrasting poems; Jonson's 'To Heaven' and Donne's 'Thou Hast Made Me'; 16. Prose; 17. Extracts from novels: a passage from George Eliot's Daniel Deronda; 18. Extracts from novels: a comparison of passages from Thackeray and Lawrence; 19. Two passages about belief: Foerster and Forster; 20. Aphorisms by Franklin and Lawrence; 21. Two modern passages on literary criticism; 22. Two pieces of eighteenth-century literary criticism; Notes; Exercises; Index.

This 1968 book is a useful introduction to practical criticism for students. It offers an impressive range of closely analysed passages and exercises, in prose and verse. Mr Rawlinson considers the problems of the beginner, and discussed the mistakes an misconceptions that sometimes spoil practical criticism courses.