The Past That Poets Make

This is an analysis of the literary art of recapturing the past as the artist perceives it. By clearly distinguishing different ways of creating a past—in fiction, history, and other arts—Toliver enriches our understanding of literary strategies.

The Past that Poets Make examines such questions as how a fictional narrative differs from other ways of seeing a past time; to what extent literature is nontemporal, transcending its time, and to what extent it is tied to the institutions and trad...