Volume 25, Number 13 · August 17, 1978
At the Poles of Poetry
By Irvin Ehrenpreis
Millions of Strange Shadows
by Anthony Hecht
Atheneum, 75 pp., $7.95
Gaudete
by Ted Hughes
Harper & Row, 200 pp., $10.00
The appearance of new books by Anthony Hecht and Ted Hughes raises the question of the merits of two kinds of writing, the poetry of limits and the poetry of extremes. Hecht makes a good representative of the one, Hughes of the other. The poetry of limits depends on form, on gradations of tone, on language that is deliberate, obviously selected. The poetry of extremes depends on deep, often shocking, images, on sudden leaps in mood, unpredictable reversals of tone, on language that sounds uncalculated. The poetry of limits suggests clarification emerging from uncertainty; the poetry of extremes suggests mysterious emotions in conflict.
Review, 3636 words
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