Description: A theory of poetic production and reception based on both literary and anthropological studies and models.
Review Quotes: "Tarn as proven himself to be one of the most demanding and exacting of poetry's anthropologists. If his particular blend of density, polymathism, and accessibility have slipped him through the cracks of critical and popular attention, his investigations in The Embattled Lyric provide an entryway into the contexts of Tarn's poetics, and from there into his poetry."--Rain Taxi