This is our backup site. Click here to visit our main site at MellenPress.com
Tripp, Raymond P. Jr.
About the author: Dr. Tripp received his PhD from Union Graduate School, cincinnati, Ohio. He is Professor Emeritus from the University of Denver. He has published extensively, including Essays on the Language and Meaning in the Poem Called Beowulf (Mellen, 1992).
2000 0-7734-7850-7This study does not ‘explain away’ the poet according to this or that school of contemporary criticism or psychological bias, but takes her at her own word as a late transcendental poet. Part I deals with the common fallacies of Dickinson studies, the conflict of world views between critic and poet, the substitution of biographical speculation for literary criticism, etc. Part II engages the substance of what she has to say about life and living it. Part III presents a new interpretation of her style and language for a metaphysical point of view.
1992 0-7734-9162-7
This lively collection of essays aims at freeing the poem from the burden of its critical past - and future. It begins with a balanced yet unsparing review of the uses and abuses of contemporary criticism, and continues with new answers for particular questions familiar to students of the poem: the Christian/Pagan dilemma, the connection with the Grettis Saga, the value of treasure, the role of drinking, the identity of the messenger, the poet on poetry, the poet's rhetoric, the events in Heorot, the notorious gifstol crux, the importance of wordplay, and the poet's understanding of fate. Other essays also engage a wide range of general topics: the poet's lively sense of humor, use of the Liber Monstrorum, the poet's scatology and canonical parody, sartorial anticipation of Carlyle, and more.