You, Too, Could Write a Poem

Starred review from November 7, 2016
Orr (The Road Not Taken) collects entries from his New York Times poetry column from the past 15 years, analyzing the works of individual poets and the state of the form itself. He provides equal parts illuminating commentary and hilarious jabs at the poetry world’s insularity and pretensions. He playfully skewers Billy Collins in a verse that perfectly mimics Collins’s signature style and disparages poets who are “small-scale epiphany manufacturers.” Among his many skills, Orr displays a singular ability to capture a poet’s sensibility, comparing Stevie Smith to a figure skater whose “seemingly purposeless meanderings” somehow “cut into the ice the figure of a hanged man.” A very clever piece examining clichés of poetic “greatness” argues for Elizabeth Bishop’s more subtle powers over “thunderbolt-chucking wild man” Robert Lowell. More user-friendly pieces look at the tradition of wedding poetry, poke fun at an O Magazine feature titled “Spring Fashion Modeled by Rising Young Poets,” and summarily appraise James Franco’s poetic output: “Is it, you may be wondering, good? No.” Orr is an exceptional wit and critical talent, with perhaps his most brilliant feat here being how he dissolves some of poetry’s opacity and makes it more accessible (and interesting) to a wider audience. Agent: Betsy Lerner, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

November 15, 2016
Fresh, vigorous, spirited views on poets and their work.Award-winning New York Times poetry columnist Orr (The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong, 2016, etc.) gathers 45 essays and reviews that amply demonstrate his irreverent wit and shrewd insights about poets, poems, and poetry readers, "all five of them." "I don't like poetry," he announces at the start, nor does he like poetry criticism, "unless it's written by someone who cares about criticism almost as much as he cares about poetry." Certainly, Orr cares about conveying his views in pithy, often elegant prose and--perhaps bringing to bear his training as a lawyer--defending those views with exacting analyses. Despite his obvious erudition, the author is never a snob. Reflecting on the Best American Poetry series, he concedes that the series promotes the "appealingly democratic" idea of poetry "as a community activity. 'People are writing poems!' each volume cries. 'You, too, could write a poem!' " But Orr, who celebrates the "virtuosity" of technique in poets such as James Merrill, distinguishes between what the series deems "best" and what is truly great. In "Oprah's Adventures in Poetryland," Orr considers a special issue of O, The Oprah Magazine that featured fashions modeled by young women poets. "Only a snob or an idiot," he admits, "complains when the magic wand of Oprah is flourished in his direction." Although he applauds her for popularizing poetry, he regrets that nowhere in the issue does anyone consider "the actual experience of reading a poem." That experience is central to all of his essays: about Elizabeth Bishop, for example, whose work he finds characterized by "curious restraint"; poems by actor James Franco; and Louis MacNeice, whose reputation, Orr finds, is justifiably ascending. Orr says the greatest compliment for any critic "is to say that you found yourself thinking of his writing the next time you encountered a good poem." He abundantly deserves that same praise.

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Starred review from January 1, 2017

This inspiring collection of reviews and essays on the pleasures of poetry by New York Times poetry columnist Orr is a powerful example of why he is one of our sanest (and therefore most important) voices on this too-often-neglected art. The great gift that Orr brings to the discussion is his openness and willingness to grapple with the "actual experience of reading a poem." Perhaps Orr's background in law gives him this eye for the particularities of a poem and the need to build a case (for or against) not through agendas and theories but through evidence and facts. That attention is definitely his greatest strength, but it is delightfully paired with a delicious wit. Whether he is writing about "Oprah's Adventures in Poetry Land" or making a reference to TV's crime-solving attorney Matlock, Orr is always a fascinating, clever, and inspiring guide (perhaps most especially when it comes to the wonders of Elizabeth Bishop and Philip Larkin). Readers curious about the state of contemporary poetry and the value of reading a poem will love this book (even when they don't agree with it). VERDICT All poetry collections should have a copy, and every librarian should be ready to put this charming volume in the hands of readers.--Herman Sutter, St. Agnes Acad., Houston

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