Volume 22, Number 21 & 22 · January 22, 1976
The State of Poetry
By Irvin Ehrenpreis
Collected Poems
by George Oppen
New Directions, 263 pp., $15.95
Somewhere Is Such a Kingdom: Poems 1952-1971
by Geoffrey Hill
Houghton Mifflin, 130 pp., $6.95
Turtle Island
by Gary Snyder
New Directions, 114 pp., $1.95 (paper)
The criticism of poetry in this country has been rendered immobile by the history of American taste. Fifty years ago, writers who now look canonical were noticed with indifference or ridicule. Even Cummings—who, read aloud, charms one in a surprisingly traditional way—offended so many editors that he called one of his books No Thanks and dedicated it to a list of publishers who had turned it down.
Review, 4048 words
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