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

Save to Bookshelf

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

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

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 23 November 2024.]

Robert Bly, The Light Around the Body

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback