The
orphic
Voice
Poetry and Natural History
BY ELIZABETH
SEWELL.
A noted
British philosopher and critic
presents a profound and revo–
lutionary theory of the power
and place of poetry in the liv–
ing universe. This monumen–
tal study is an exploration of
the biological function of poet–
ry
in
the natural history of
mankind as symbolized by the
myth of Orpheus in the works
of major Western writers from
Bacon and Shakespeare to
Erasmus, Darwin and Goethe
to
Wordsworth and Rilke. Miss
Sewell's theme is that for the
last four hundred years poetry
has been struggling
to
evolve
and perfect the inclusive
mythology on which language
works and all thought in words
is carried on, and that this
type of thinking is the only
adequate instrument for think–
ing about change, process, or–
ganisms, and life. Her book
should
be
of large importance
not only to anyone seriously
interested in literature and
philosophy but also
to
all those
concerned with the human
realities underlying all scien–
tific thought.
$7.50
II
a
Yale University
Press
Elm
New Haven,
Conn.
CONTRIBUTORS
RAMON SENDER is the well
known Spanish novelist, several
of whose books have appeared
in English .
JAMES DICKEY's first book of
poems, Into the Stone, has just
been published by Scribner's.
RICHARD CROSSMAN, author
of many books, is one of the
leaders of the English Labour
Party.
PETER MARIN is a young writer
now living in New Yorlc and
teaching ot Hofstra College.
G.
S. FRASER, a frequent
con–
tributor to PR, teaches at the
University
of
Leicester in Eng–
land.
BENJAMIN DeMOTT, novelist
and critic, teaches English at
Amherst.
JEREMY LARNER lives in New
York and hos published recently
in The New Leader and Dissent.
