306. (William Empson)

Though it is probably the third most famous of Empson’s villanelles, “Reflection from Anita Loos” is a fine example of … More

305. (Lucille Clifton)

To my eyes and ears, the single greatest post-1960s American poet is Lucille Clifton. She is as essentially a lyric … More

Lorine Niedecker’s poems are taut as riddles. Here is “Easter”: A robin stood by my porch and side-eyed raised … More

Geoffrey Hill’s The Book of Baruch by the Gnostic Justin takes as its subject and condition the inverse of a … More

Donald Davie’s The Purity of Diction in English Verse is, first and foremost, a recovery of poetry written within the … More

How stupidly, carelessly I misread and misheard “Directive,” failing first to read it for what it was saying, and second … More

Literature: manifestation and harmonizing of selfhood in the field of language, by means of the judgment orienting by cardinal … More

I’d been intending to write up some thoughts on Yeats before the LRB review of Geoffrey Hill’s last book appeared, … More

George Kalogeris’ collection Guide to Greece is a marvelous collection of poems that reads like a novel—which is to say … More

Among the most beautiful and anthologized of Austin Clarke’s poems is “Martha Blake”: . Before the day is everywhere … More