The Poet's Holy Craft

"For those who find it difficult to understand how devotion to a particular well-loved place can yield the universal truths of great art, this distinguished volume is exemplary demonstration. Taking his nod from Wordsworth's Lake District verse, Brennan, an expert on the English Romantics, charts Simms's contributions to world literature through his 'bioregionalism.' Among its many strengths, the work situates Simms's poetry within the context of the ecology of his plantation home, and charts a centre of his Romantic inspiration in the 'reality of locality.' Brennan frees Simms from the limitations created over the years by so many critics of American letters. It was bound to happen, but at last Brennan has done it masterfully."—James E. Kibler, editor of the Selected Poems of William Gilmore Simms

"Brennan surpasses the general trend in Simms scholarship, demonstrating why and how Simms's poetry is equally important in his and the American canons. Brennan obviously has done brilliant homework in charting Simms's poetic shift from Neoclassic to Romantic—especially in relation to Byron and Wordsworth among British poets—expertly illuminating Simms's techniques. This is an indispensable book in Simms studies and a worthy addition to the great body of scholarship on nineteenth-century American poets"—Benjamin F. Fisher, University of Mississippi