cover image The Poet's Art

The Poet's Art

M. L. Rosenthal, Macha L. Rosenthal. W. W. Norton & Company, $14.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-393-02432-6

Some poems that begin whimsically or lightly take a serious turn not foreseen even by the poet and end up dealing with weighty concerns. To Rosenthal this comes as no surprise since writing poetry is an act of exploration in which chance associations, reverie and introspection all play a part. This poet, critic and New York University professor ponders the elusive element of luck that goes into making a poem. Choosing his examples widely from Marvell to Mayakovsky, T. S. Eliot to Philip Larkin, he shows how poets useor breakform in bringing to the surface the inner realities of the psyche. Verses from Dante and Blake support his contention that great poems approach a state of transport even as they crystallize social and political pressures in the poet's milieu. (June 29)