Charles Wright

This work offers a complete reader’s guide and handbook to the late poetry of author Charles Wright. It begins with a study of the poems in Chickamauga (1995), the earliest of which were published in the late 1980s, and continues through the seven volumes that followed: Black Zodiac (1997), Appalachia (1998), North American Bear (1999), A Short History of the Shadow (2002), Buffalo Yoga (2004), Scar Tissue (2006), and Littlefoot: A Poem (2007). The author includes an annotated commentary for each of the 230 poems covered in the work, providing background information such as perceived influences, parallels to other poets, historical explanations, and biographical details.

Robert D. Denham is John P. Fishwick Professor of English Emeritus at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He has also taught at Emory & Henry College, after which he served as Director of English Programs and Director of the Association of Departments of English for the Modern Language Association. He has written and edited more than twenty-five volumes on Frye.

Edited by Robert D. Denham
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 260
Bibliographic Info: chronology, appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3242-4
Imprint: McFarland

Preface      1
List of Abbreviations and Shortened Forms      3
A Charles Wright Chronology      5
Introduction      9

Part I. The Third Trilogy: Negative Blue
Chapter 1. Chickamauga      23
Chapter 2. Black Zodiac      60
Chapter 3. Appalachia and North American Bear      97

Part II. The Fourth Trilogy and Its Coda
Chapter 4. A Short History of the Shadow      137
Chapter 5. Buffalo Yoga      165
Chapter 6. Scar Tissue      188
Chapter 7. Littlefoot: A Poem      214

Appendix: Reviews of Wright’s Books from Chickamauga through Littlefoot: A Poem      239
Index      245

• “wonderful…definitive”—Appalachian Journal
• “handy source of information and thought-provoking ideas…rewarding…scholarly”—Review Revue