Ezra Pound's definition of an epic as "a poem containing history" raises questions: how can a poem "contain" history? And if it can, does it help us to think about history in ways that conventional historiography cannot? Poems Containing History: Twentieth-Century American Poetry's Engagement with the Past, by Gary Grieve-Carlson, argues that twentieth-century American poetry has "contained" and helped its readers to think about history in a variety of provocative and powerful ways. Tracing the discussion of the relationship between poetry and history from Aristotle's Poetics to Norman...

Ezra Pound s definition of an epic as a poem containing history raises questions: how can a poem contain history? And if it can, does it help us to think about history in ways that conventional historiography cannot? Poems Containing History: Twentieth-Century American Poetry s Engagement with the Past, by Gary Grieve-Carlson, argues that twentieth-century American poetry has contained and helped its readers to think about history in a variety of provocative and powerful ways. Tracing the discussion of the relationship between poetry and history from Aristotle s Poetics to Norman Mailer s The...