{"product_id":"the-poets-mistake-erica-mcalpine-9780691203492","title":"The Poet's Mistake","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat our tendency to justify the mistakes in poems reveals about our faith in poetry--and about how we read\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eKeats mixed up Cortez and Balboa. Heaney misremembered the name of one of Wordsworth's lakes. Poetry--even by the greats--is rife with mistakes. In \u003ci\u003eThe Poet's Mistake\u003c\/i\u003e, critic and poet Erica McAlpine gathers together for the first time numerous instances of these errors, from well-known historical gaffes to never-before-noticed grammatical incongruities, misspellings, and solecisms. But unlike the many critics and other readers who consider such errors felicitous or essential to the work itself, she makes a compelling case for calling a mistake a mistake, arguing that denying the possibility of error does a disservice to poets and their poems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTracing the temptation to justify poets' errors from Aristotle through Freud, McAlpine demonstrates that the study of poetry's mistakes is also a study of critical attitudes toward mistakes, which are usually too generous--and often at the expense of the poet's intentions. Through remarkable close readings of Wordsworth, Keats, Browning, Clare, Dickinson, Crane, Bishop, Heaney, Ashbery, and others, \u003ci\u003eThe Poet's Mistake\u003c\/i\u003e shows that errors are an inevitable part of poetry's making and that our responses to them reveal a great deal about our faith in poetry--and about how we read.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Erica McAlpine\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691203490\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691203492\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 06\/09\/2020\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 264\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.95lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.80d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2021","brand":"Erica McAlpine","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43988878688511,"sku":"9780691203492","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_04a5a34b-d8d1-41ae-929a-88de88d2d602.jpg?v=1683296886","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-poets-mistake-erica-mcalpine-9780691203492","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}