The last book written by the most famous literary critic of his generation, on the sustaining power of poetry
This dazzling celebration of the power of poetry to sublimate deathâcompleted days before Harold Bloom diedâshows how literature renews life amid what Milton called âa universe of death.â
Bloom reads as a way of taking arms against the sea of lifeâs troubles, taking readers on a grand tour of the poetic voices that have haunted him through a lifetime of reading. âHigh literature,â
he writes, âis a saving lie against time, loss of individuality, premature death.â
In passages of breathtaking intimacy, we see him awake late at night, reciting lines from Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Montaigne, Blake, Wordsworth, Hart Crane, Jay Wright, and many others. He
feels himself âedged by nothingness,â uncomprehending, but still sustained by reading. Generous and clear-eyed, this is among Harold Bloomâs most ambitious and most moving books.