Take Arms Against a Sea of Troubles
The Power of a Reader's Mind over a Universe of Death

The last book written by the most famous literary critic of his generation, on the sustaining power of poetry This dazzling celebration of the power of poetry to sublimate deathcompleted weeks before Harold Bloom diedshows how literature renews life amid what Milton called a universe of death. Bloom reads as a way of taking arms against the sea of lifes troubles, taking readers on a grand tour of the poetic voices that have haunted him through a lifetime of reading. High literature, he writes, is a saving lie against time, loss of individuality, premature death. In passages of breathtaking intimacy, we see him awake late at night, reciting lines from Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Montaigne, Blake, Wordsworth, Hart Crane, Jay Wright, and many others. He feels himself edged by nothingness, uncomprehending, but still sustained by reading. Generous and clear-eyed, this is among Harold Blooms most ambitious and most moving books.