The Art of the Poetic Line by James Longenbach
Published 2008 · 128 pages · 36,000 words · about 3 hours at an average pace · Essays & Criticism
How hard is The Art of the Poetic Line to read?
The Art of the Poetic Line scores 46 out of 100 for difficulty on ReadingRate, making it moderately challenging. 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: 55 out of 100
- Clear prose with only light prosodic terminology.
- Sentence structure: 48 out of 100
- Abstraction: 62 out of 100
- Abstract principles always immediately illustrated with specific lines.
- Information density: 70 out of 100
- Compact text with high concentration of formal observation per page.
- Narrative indirection: 12 out of 100
- Direct essay form with no narrative detours.
- Symbolic density: 100 out of 100
- Strictly analytical register.
- Ironic distance: 12 out of 100
- Sober and precise throughout.
- Resolution withholding: 12 out of 100
- Each observation concludes with a clear formal claim.
- Structural complexity: 28 out of 100
- Brief chapters each focused on a single aspect of the poetic line.
How The Art of the Poetic Line is regarded
The Art of the Poetic Line holds a literary regard score of 73 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.