Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End by Barbara Herrnstein Smith
Published 1968 · 306 pages · 115,000 words · about 10 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End to read?
Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End scores 61 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it quite demanding. The score is a weighted composite of nine measures: four of how hard the prose is to parse, five of how hard the meaning is to extract.
- Vocabulary: 65 out of 100
- Specialized prosodic and rhetorical terminology used with precision throughout.
- Sentence structure: 62 out of 100
- Abstraction: 70 out of 100
- Abstract formal categories always grounded in close reading of specific poems.
- Information density: 78 out of 100
- Dense taxonomic analysis with extensive textual evidence.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Proceeds as systematic scholarly argument.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Strictly analytical throughout.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Straightforward scholarly register with minimal ironic inflection.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each chapter builds to a clear taxonomic conclusion.
- Structural complexity: 42 out of 100
- Complex taxonomy of closure types organized across multiple overlapping chapters.
How Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End is regarded
Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End holds a literary regard score of 61 out of 100, weighing its place in the canon, its critical reception, its influence on other writers, and the standing of its author. Regard is measured separately from difficulty: a demanding book is not necessarily an admired one.