Kirsten Painter is an independent scholar of comparative literature and earned her Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2000. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at New York University.

• @fmct:Contents @toc4:Note on Translations, Transliteration, Sources, and Abbreviationsiii Acknowledgmentsiii @toc2:Introduction000 @toc2:Chapter OneThe Symbolist Background000 @toc3:Who Were the Symbolists?000 The Legacies of French Symbolism000 Symbolism Simplified: Three Characteristics of Symbolism000 Poetics of the Indistinct000 Escape from the Earthly World into the Otherworld000 The Subjective Self000 @toc2:Chapter TwoThe Emergence of Tempered Modernism000 @toc3:The Collapse of Symbolism and the Predecessors of Tempered Modernism000 The Parallel Between Acmeism and Imagism000 The Connection with Rilke000 The Relation Between Tempered Modernism, Radical Modernism, and Symbolism 000 Poetics of Hardness000 @toc2:Chapter ThreeThe Alternative Traditions000 @toc3:Classical Antiquity000 The Layers of Culture: The Poet as Architect000 French Marble000 Translating China000 The Parallel with Japanese Haiku000 @toc2:Chapter FourClarity and Precision000 @toc3:Imagery: Indefinite Musicality Versus Defined Precision000 Diction: Solemn Obscurity Versus Concise Simplicity000 Fragmented Words Versus Clarity of Detail000 Collages Versus Etchings000 @toc2:Chapter FiveThe Earthly Object000 @toc3:Manifestoes of Earthliness000 Bringing Down the Moon000 Seeing the World Anew000 @toc2:Chapter SixThe Suppression of the Self000 @toc3:The Self in Radical and Tempered Modernism000 Slices of a Society Novel: The Self Becomes a Thing000 Thing-Poems: The Thing Becomes the Self000 Concise Laments: The Self Absents Itself000 A Night at the Opera: The Sardonic Commentator000 @toc2:Chapter SevenSubdued Love Songs: Hardness and Simplicity000 @toc3:Symbolist and Futurist Love Songs000 Tempered Modernist Love Songs000 @toc2:Conclusion000 @toc4:Notes000 Bibliography000 Index000

"Painter is an effective advocate for the poetry of the Tempered Modernists, which she clearly and rightfully admires. Her beautifully-written book exemplifies in itself the qualities of clarity, simplicity, and elegance that she sees as the hallmark of the movement she discusses... Painter needs to be congratulated for having opened up a whole new area of inquiry." - Comparative Literature Studies "[An] illuminating and engaging study that genuinely breaks new ground" - Slavic Review "...a clear and cogent scholarly work by an unusually gifted translator of poetry." - American Literature "...this book, elegantly constructed in the manner of the tempered modernism which it admires, makes an important contribution to the discipline of comparative literature and provides numerous insights into the work of individual poets." - Modern Language Review