Senses of Style: Poetry before Interpretation

Style is everywhere, but it evades criticism, especially now that interpretation asks us to look right through it, and yet style does so much work, telling us apart and telling us who we are. Senses of Style (University of Chicago Press) covers 400 years and is written in 400 brief, aphoristic remarks, that discuss style’s significance by comparing the work and lives of Sir Thomas Wyatt, a poet in Henry VIII’s court, and Frank O’Hara, a midcentury American poet who admired Wyatt. Jeff Dolven ultimately illuminates what we mean when we speak about style, no matter the century.