James Longenbach

Biography

James Longenbach is the author of five distinguished critical studies of modern literature, most recently The Resistance to Poetry (Chicago, 2005). His three books of poems, including the forthcoming Draft of a Letter, are published by Chicago. Starting in the fall of 2006, he will be the Bain-Swiggett Professor of Poetry at Princeton University.

See Work

ESSAYS / Summer 2006

Purity, Restraint, Stillness

By James Longenbach

The word surrender makes this achievement sound easy, as if the victory of each day were to wake up looking exactly like yourself. But even if we all possess certain rhythms, certain callings, not everyone is able to exist in the simple act...