Style is the material body of lyric poetry, Helen Vendler suggests. To cast off an earlier style is to do an act of violence to the self. Why might a poet do this, adopting a sharply different form? In this exploration of three kinds of break in poetic style, Vendler clarifies the essential connection between style and substance in poetry. Opening perspectives in the work of three very different poets, her study of changes in style yields a view of the interplay of moral, emotional and intellectual forces in a poet's work. Gerard Manley Hopkins' invention of sprung rhythm marks a dramatic break with his early style. Rhythm, Vendler shows us, is at the heart of Hopkins' aesthetic, and sprung rhythm is his symbol for danger, difference and the shock of the beautiful. In Seamus Heaney's work, she identifies clear shifts in grammatical "atmosphere" from one person to the next - from "nounness" to the "betweenness" of an adverbial style - shifts whose moral and political implications come under scrutiny here. And finally Vendler looks at Jorie Graham's departure from short lines to numbered lines to squared long lines of sentences, marking a move from deliberation to cinematic "freeze-framing" to coverage, each with its own meaning in this poet's career. Throughout, Vendler reminds us that what distinguishes successful poetry is a mastery of language at all levels - including the rhythmic, the grammatical and the graphic.

美国文学评论界的领军人物，被称为当代极为优秀、敏锐的诗歌评论家之一。她于1933年出生于马萨诸塞州，1960年获得哈佛大学文学博士学位，先后在康奈尔大学、波士顿大学等大学任职。1984年开始在哈佛大学英语系任教，兼任美国艺术与科学研究院院士。1990年，被任命为哈佛大学亚瑟•金斯利•波特讲座教授。文德勒专注于诗人和诗歌作品的细读，被誉为具有“铁血战士般的战斗力”，是一位“力量型的诗歌读者”。她多年来笔耕不辍，推出多部关于英美诗人的专著，因为卓越的贡献，获得了美国最高人文成就的国家人文基金等无数荣誉和奖项。