The Modern Element

March 1, 2008
Kirsch, a prize-winning poet ("The Thousand Wells"), a widely published author ("Wounded Surgeon"), and a critic for the "New York Sun", cuts to the heart of modernism's poetic tradition with 26 essays that mitigate a cacophony of fashionableness in contemporary poetry and its criticism. Ten years in the writing, this book explores and analyzes the work of 23 leading contemporary poets who represent the second half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. As poet exemplars, Matthew Arnold and T.S. Eliot ("The Waste Land") carry Kirsch's pursuit of the vital in modern poetry within the heart of his subject's works. The result is a disambiguation of essential from inessential elements in contemporary poetry and within a range of its interpretations. We are not left bereft. As such, one essay features the work of four young poets who are "doing some of the most moving and vital writing of their poetic generation." His appraisal, rigorously bold and provocative, strips modern poetic tradition to its ultimate predicament: "to surrender to complexity" an onerous feat of ironic simplicity. A discerning critique recommended for academic libraries, particularly those with strong literature collections.Katharine A. Webb, Ohio State Univ. Libs., Columbus

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2008
The skill of these essays, most written for the New Republic, is breathtaking. Kirsch puts his finger on exactly what is wrong with some of the most difficult (or confused or obscure) contemporary poetry with absolute lucidity, butin a respectful, almost gentlemanly way that stings far more than any snarky tirade. He is the velvet hammer of poetry critics, nailing Jorie Grahams obfuscations (Her poems are obscure . . . because they reside in the privacy of the poets mind and not in the public realm where poet and reader discuss things in common); John Ashberys self-indulgence (To read this kind of thing can be intermittently stimulating; to read it at great length . . . is mildly masochistic), and Sharon Olds narcissism with just the right note of modest, almost parental disapproval. He leavesoutrage to the reader.Kirsch is equally penetrating about poets he admires, particularly technicians like Derek Wolcott, Richard Wilbur, and James Merrill, making you desperate to read them, or reread them, which may be the greatest service of all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)