Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End

In Poetic Closure, distinguished literary scholar Barbara Herrnstein Smith explores the provocative question: How do poems end? To answer it, Smith examines numerous individual poems and examples of common poetic forms in order to reveal the relationship between closure and the overall structure and integrity of a poem. First published in 1968, Smith's book remains essential reading in poetic theory.

Barbara Herrnstein Smith is distinguished professor of English at Brown University and the Braxton Craven Professor of Comparative Literature and English at Duke University, where she is also director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Science and Cultural Theory. ""