Nick Courtright on The Proofs, the Figures: Walt Whitman and the Meaning of Poems.

Compulsive Reader talks

Kristina Darling interviews Nick Courtright about his new book The Proofs, the Figures: Walt Whitman and the Meaning of Poems.

In “Song of Myself,” Walt Whitman wryly remarks about one’s being “proud to get at the meaning of poems,” a comment highlighting the long-fraught problem of poetic interpretation and the pride-worthy intellectual labor required to elucidate the meaning of a text. Using Whitman’s own “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” an eight-line poem published in 1865, as its case study, The Proofs, the Figures: Walt Whitman and the Meaning of Poems investigates the chief methods available to readers when they embark on literary meaning-making, while also highlighting the challenges innate to such a task. With examples ranging from the critical and scholarly to the popular-cultural and survey-based, investigating interpretive prospects for “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” confirms that “to get at the meaning of poems” is a project of infinite opportunity both rewarded by and afflicted with the impossibility of absolute comprehension. By employing an array of formal, historical, mediational, and psychological techniques, Dr. Courtright confronts the lasting question of “what counts” or is relevant as evidence for an interpretation, while casting a wide net for the resources and methodologies that can be brought to bear not just on this single text or author, but on all texts and for all authors. Dr. Courtright’s book has already earned strong praise for its engaging prose and thought-provoking analysis. Dr. Matt Cohen, Co-Director of the Walt Whitman Archive and author of The New Walt Whitman Studies (Cambridge UP), says, "The Proofs, the Figures has all of Nick Courtright's usual hallmarks: humor, trenchant readings, sustained skepticism, and a tactical leveraging of critical voices both old and new." Similarly, Dr. Chad Bennett, author of Word of Mouth: Gossip and American Poetry (Johns Hopkins UP) and Your New Feeling is the Artifact of a Bygone Era (Sarabande), praises Courtright as a critic and thinker: "I appreciate, as always, Nick Courtright's lively and accessible writing, engagement with audience, and the ambition of this project. I'm impressed by how much ground he covers."

A scholar-practitioner, Dr Courtright is also the author of The Forgotten World, Let There Be Light, and Punchline, a National Poetry Series finalist. He is the Executive Editor of Atmosphere Press. His poetry has appeared in The Harvard Review, Kenyon Review, Boston Review, The Iowa Review, AGNI, Gulf Coast, and The Southern Review, among dozens of others, and essays and other prose have been published by such places as The Huffington Post, The Best American Poetry, Gothamist, and SPIN Magazine. With a Doctorate in Literature from the University of Texas, he lives in Austin with the poet Lisa Mottolo and their children, William and Samuel. Find out more about Nick Courtright at: https://nickcourtright.com

Kristina Marie Darling is a poet, essayist, and critic. She holds a doctorate from the Poetics Program at S.U.N.Y.-Buffalo, as well as an M.F.A. from New York University. Find out more about Kristina Marie Darling at: https://kristinamariedarling.com