Volume 24, Number 19 · November 24, 1977
The Wonder Man
By Helen Vendler
I Never Told Anybody: Teaching Poetry Writing in a Nursing Home
by Kenneth Koch
Random House, 259 pp., $8.95
The Duplications
by Kenneth Koch
Random House, 154 pp., $6.95
All poetry deserving of the name has been written by people who have passed through puberty. On the other hand, there are some aspects of poetry—notably, originality of perception and spontaneity of language—which appear frequently in the speech and writing of children, but which are so dishearteningly killed off by life and schooling that a way with words is one of the rarest of adult talents. Most literate adults can express opinions, make statements, deliver judgments, even offer insights; but hardly any of them can cause that intake of breath, that startled glance, which a poet's barest phrase can occasion.
Review, 3002 words
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