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William Empson
Empson, Sir William
The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
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2003
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© The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature 2003, originally published by Oxford University Press 2003. (Hide copyright information)
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Empson, Sir William (1906–84), poet and critic, became professor of English at Sheffield. He published two volumes of verse,
Poems (1935) and
The Gathering Storm (1940);
Collected Poems (revised) appeared in 1955. His criticism includes
Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930),
Some Versions of Pastoral (1935),
The Structure of Complex Words (1951), and
Milton's God (1961). Empson's poetry makes use of analytical argument and imagery drawn from modern physics and mathematics; a technical virtuoso, he employed metaphysical conceits and linguistic, metrical, and syntactical complexities.
Using Biography (1984), a posthumous collection of essays, 1958–82, constitutes a spirited attack on the
New Criticism's neglect of the biographical element in literary interpretation.
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William Empson: Against the Christians.(Book review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 4/1/2008; ; 700+ words
; William Empson: Against the Christians. By John Haffenden...John Haffenden's second volume sees William Empson in a series of wartime and post-war...in his rooms) fifty years earlier. William Empson was an extreme eccentric and individualist...
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Ambiguous type.(William Empson, Volume I: Among the Mandarins)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: New Criterion; 5/1/2005; ; 700+ words
; Ambiguous type John Haffenden William Empson, Volume I: Among the Mandarins. Oxford University...twenty years, John Haffenden probably knows more about William Empson than Empson did, but he has lost all sense of proportion...
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Intimate dialogues. (William Empson)
Magazine article from: The New Leader; 7/1/1985; ; 700+ words
; WILLIAM EMPSON was working on the manuscript of Using...nevertheless reshaped literary criticism. Empson's first landmark, Seven Types of Ambiguity...establishment, which continued to charge at Empson blindly until the end of his days. This...
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The great professor.(William Empson: Volume II: Against the Christians)(Book review)
Magazine article from: National Review; 5/14/2007; ; 700+ words
; William Empson: Volume II: Against the Christians...I knew nothing about the author, William Empson, but the insolent intelligence of...the novelist Fay Weldon recalled Empson as well: And William, awesome in a different way: Seven...
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A Poet Duly Noted.(The Complete Poems of William Empson)
Magazine article from: The Nation; 12/31/2001; ; 700+ words
; THE COMPLETE POEMS OF WILLIAM EMPSON. Edited by John Haffenden. University...edition of The Complete Poems of William Empson was reviewed by Frank Kermode...Books under the sly headline "William Empson: a most noteworthy poet." Empson...
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Review: Books: In praise of brain power Ian Hamilton welcomes an elucidatory edition of the poems of the famously clever William Empson
Newspaper article from: The Sunday Telegraph London; 5/14/2000; ; 700+ words
; The Complete Poems of William Empson ed by John Haffenden Allen Lane/Penguin, pounds 30, 410 pp...24 (free p&p) 0870 155 7222 IN 1930, THE 24-year-old William Empson published a "grammatico- critical" treatise called Seven Types...
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William Empson: Among the Mandarins.(Book review)
Magazine article from: The Modern Language Review; 7/1/2007; ; 700+ words
; William Empson: Among the Mandarins. By JOHN HAFFENDEN. Oxford: Oxford University...927659-2. John Haffenden tells us that in the eyes of the Chinese William Empson was an exemplary 'Elder Born', a man of true han yang, 'elevated...
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William Empson.(William Empson, vol. 1)(Brief article)(Book review)
Magazine article from: Biography; 3/22/2006; ; 479 words
; Empson, William William Empson. Vol. I: Among the Mandarins. John Haffenden. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006. 695 pp. $45.00. "John Haffenden's two-volume biography, of which the first volume has now appeared, has been more than twenty...
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Wisdom and weirdness ; William Empson, volume 2: Against the Christians By John Haffenden OXFORD [pound]30 (797pp)
Newspaper article from: The Independent - London; 1/19/2007; ; 700+ words
; ...of John Haffenden's biography, William Empson was born in 1906, became a dazzling...a park and have a good scream. Empson joined the BBC in the overseas service...and ardently Communist sculptor, Empson's wife for 43 years and mistress...
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Ambiguities, Complexities, Puzzles: A Late Encounter with William Empson
Magazine article from: The Hudson Review; 4/1/2006; ; 700+ words
; ...was the kind of undergraduate (Empson must have been such another) who...historical and didn't mention Empson. But one was on pastoral, starting...s extraordinary new biography, William Empson, Volume I: Among the Mandarins...
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William Empson
Book article from: The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
William Empson 1906-84, English critic and poet...Complete Poems was published in 2001. Empson was knighted in 1979. Bibliography...Haffenden, ed., Selected Letters of William Empson (2006); studies by J. H. Wills...
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Empson, William
Book article from: World Encyclopedia
Empson, William (1906–84) English poet and critic. He expanded the ideas of I. A. Richards in the Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930). Empson wrote detailed analyses of specific texts, a technique that became known...
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Empson, Sir William
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Empson, Sir William (1906–84), poet and critic, became professor of English...Structure of Complex Words (1951), and Milton's God (1961). Empson's poetry makes use of analytical argument and imagery drawn from modern...
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Roberts, Michael William Edward
Book article from: The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature
Roberts, Michael William Edward (1902–48), poet, critic, editor, and teacher...and New Country (1933), containing work by Auden , Day-Lewis , Empson , Spender , and others established him, in T. S. Eliot's phrase...
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Malthus, Thomas Robert
Dictionary entry from: Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
...Cambridge, where his tutor was William Frend. He read for the mathematical...his life; the most important was William Otter (1768 – 1840...Harriet Martineau, Otter, and William Empson, who was also at Haileybury...
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