Robert Bly, The Light Around the Body

William V. Davis (Baylor University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1967

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Poem collection

Resources

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The Light Around the Body

(1967), Robert Bly's second book of poems, could not be thematically more different from the “deep image” lyrics of his first book,

Silence in the Snowy Fields

(1962). A blatantly outspoken attack on the American involvement in the Vietnam War,

Light

names names and graphically describes and details man's inhumanity to man in war. The book shocked many readers. Surprisingly enough – but perhaps because it was clear that it would force people to think about political positions and actions – it won the National Book Award. Characteristically, Bly publicly donated his prize money to the draft resistance movement.

Bly took his theme and charted his direction in this book in terms of the dichotomy of the “inward” and the “outward” man as defined and

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612 words

Citation: Davis, William V.. "The Light Around the Body". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=347, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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