The Riddle in the Poem

is a study of the ramifications of riddles and riddle elements in the context of selected twentieth-century poetry. It includes works by Francis Ponge, Wallace Stevens, Richard Wilbur, Rainer M. Rilke, and Henrikas Radauskas. This book enlarges the scope of riddles as a "root of lyric" by connecting it with the folkloristic concept of "riddling," essentially a question and answer series, and by tracing the influence of the root in poetic methodology. may be defined as an attempt to advance the notion, which has been discussed in previous folkloristic and literary studies, which riddle as the root of lyric manifests itself in various ways.