Each in His Season

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Snodgrass, whose first collection, Heart's Needle , won a Pulitzer Prize in 1960, is a formalist; only on those occasions when his subject matter is strong enough does his writing break through formal constraints. This new collection is almost completely stripped of content, with a few notable exceptions: the final section of a sequential poem about snow's harshness and fragility and a wonderful poem in which the speaker returns to an empty house, recalls the bird trapped there years ago and associates it with a loved one who also took flight. Lacking inspiration, Snodgrass relies on poems falling into facile clusters: a sequence on flowers or another group of poems written for such melodies as ``Whispering'' or ``Various 1930s Love Songs.'' He resorts to bad puns (the tightrope walker who says he must ``keep to the straight and narrow'') and awkward rhymes (``entrance, sir'' with ``young dancer'' or ``putrid'' and ``neutered''). Also infuriating are poems built around the character ``W.D.,'' presumably the poet's alter-ego. This well-intentioned dolt bears comparison to the Henry figure in John Berryman's ``Dream Songs,'' but Berryman's use of irony and language is far superior. (Sept.)

Library Journal

Hardly a new-born New Formalist, Snodgrass has long depended on meter and rhyme in his poems. While this strategy occasionally creates forced nursery rhythms and a sing-song spirit (``I vowed and vowed again/ I'd marry me no more;/ I hadn't met you then./ I reswear all I swore''), for the most part it blends in wonderfully with the overall rich texture of sounds and comfortable cadences of colloquial speech: ``The high-priced jeans, the new car--she got what/ She wanted; she'd been taught to want a lot./ To her girl friend in back, she talked about/ Which of her friends shacked up with which.'' Snodgrass enjoys a many-layered reputation: as a playful minstrel with delightful songs, an introspective monologist, and a confessional writer, honest and blunt. His eighth collection of poems since 1960 includes a bit of everything, more than a little risk, and a number of gems. Recommended for most collections.-- Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia