The New Criterion

Author

William Logan

William Logan's most recent book of poetry, Strange Flesh (Penguin), was published last year. William Logan was born in Boston in 1950 and educated at Yale and the University of Iowa. He is the author of seven volumes of poetry, Sad-faced Men (1982), Difficulty (1985), Sullen Weedy Lakes (1988), Vain Empires (1998), Night Battle (1999), Macbeth in Venice (2003), and The Whispering Gallery (2005). He is also the author of four books of essays and reviews, All the Rage (1998), Reputations of the Tongue (1999, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism), Desperate Measures (2002), and The Undiscovered Country (2005, also a finalist for the National Book Critics Award in Criticism). He has received the Academy of American Poets' Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award, the National Book Critics Circle's Citation for Excellence in Reviewing, Poetry's J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize, Sewanee Review's Allen Tate Prize, Centenary College's Corrington Medal, and the Randall Jarrell Award of the Pegasus Foundation. He teaches at the University of Florida, where he is Alumni/ae Professor of English, and lives in Florida and Cambridge, England.

Articles

The sovereign ghost of Wallace Stevens (Features) , October 2009, 16
On the poet's place in the American Pantheon & the new Selected Poems, edited by John N. Serio.

You betcha! (Verse Chronicle) , June 2009, 63
On Ballistics by Billy Collins; Selected Poems by Thom Gunn, edited by August Kleinzahler; Substrate by Jim A. Powell; The Mind-Body Problem by Katha Pollitt; Sonata Mulattica by Rita Dove; and It Is Daylight by Arda Collins.

Mug shot (Poems) , May 2009, 30

Heaney's ghosts (Books) , April 2009, 61
A review of Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, by Dennis O’Driscoll (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux).

Shock & awe (Verse Chronicle) , December 2008, 36
On Red Bird by Mary Oliver, Ours by Cole Swensen, Letters to a Stranger by Thomas James, Warhorses by Yusef Komunyakaa, Figure Studies by Claudia Emerson, One Secret Thing by Sharon Olds.

Valentine's Day massacre (Verse Chronicle) , June 2008, 66
On Valentines by Ted Kooser, Fifty-Two by Melissa Green, The Wave-Maker by Elizabeth Spires, Seven Notebooks by Campbell McGrath, The Kingdom of Ordinary Time by Marie Howe, and Sea Change by Jorie Graham.

The old story (Poems) , May 2008, 43

A forgotten poet (Features) , April 2008, 14
On John Townsend Trowbridge.

Pinsky's "Gulf Music": A response (Letters) , February 2008, 80

The world is too much with us (Verse Chronicle) , December 2007, 61
On The Biplane Houses by Les Murray, Gulf Music by Robert Pinsky, Expectation Days by Sandra McPherson, Littlefoot by Charles Wright, Waterlight: Selected Poems by Kathleen Jamie, and Time and Materials by Robert Hass.

Let's do it, let's fall in luff (Verse Chronicle) , June 2007, 61
On A Worldly Country by John Ashbery, Forty-Five by Frieda Hughes, Dance Dance Revolution by Cathy Park Hong, Ooga-Booga by Frederick Seidel, and Selected Poems: Expanded Edition by Robert Lowell.

Summer in the high purpose of clouds (Poems) , April 2007, 43

God's chatter (Verse Chronicle) , December 2006, 59
On Natasha Trethewey's Native Guard, Mark Strand's Man and Camel, A. R. Ammons's Ommateum, with Doxology, Louise Glück's Firstborn, and Franz Wright's God's Silence.

Victoria's secret (Verse Chronicle) , June 2006, 70
On District and Circle by Seamus Heaney; Averno by Louise GlüÂ?ck; Landing Light by Don Paterson; Dear Ghosts, by Tess Gallagher; Decreation by Anne Carson; and Without Title by Geoffrey Hill

Elizabeth Bishop unfinished (Features) , April 2006, 4
On the frustrating, tactful poet.

"A death at Badenweiler" (Poems) , March 2006, 27

Jumping the shark (Verse Chronicle) , December 2005, 75
William Logan on current poetry.

The Great American Desert (Verse Chronicle) , June 2005, 66
Reviews of Where Shall I Wander, by John Ashbery; Elegy on Toy Piano, by Dean Young; Overlord, by Jorie Graham; Black Maria, by Kevin Young; Delights & Shadows, Flying at Night: Poems 1965–1985, & The Poetry Home Repair Manual, by Ted Kooser.

One if by land (Verse Chronicle) , December 2004, 63
Reviews of Danger on Peaks, by Gary Snyder; American Smooth, by Rita Dove; Gilgamesh, by Derrek Hines; Gilgamesh: A New English Version, by Stephen Mitchell; The Prodigal, by Derek Walcott & Second Space, by Czeslaw Milosz.

Cedar Key after storm (Poems) , September 2004, 29

Stouthearted men (Verse Chronicle) , June 2004, 60
Reviews of Selected Poems, by George Oppen, edited by Robert Creeley; Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, by Franz Wright; What Narcissism Means to Me, by Tony Hoagland; The Clerk’s Tale, by Spencer Reece; Buffalo Yoga, by Charles Wright & Collected Poems, by Philip Larkin, edited by Anthony Thwaite.

The Tide Pool (Poems) , May 2004, 33

The mystery of Marianne Moore (Books) , February 2004, 66
A review of The Poems of Marianne Moore, by Marianne Moore, edited by Grace Schulman and Becoming Marianne Moore: The Early Poems, 1907-1924, by Marianne Moore, edited by Robin G. Schulze.

The ghost (Poems) , January 2004, 33

The death of Ovid (Poems) , January 2004, 35

Zero hour (Poems) , January 2004, 35

Three phases of culture (Poems) , January 2004, 36

Out on the lawn (Verse Chronicle) , December 2003, 85
Reviews of Nine Horses, by Billy Collins; Departure, by Rosanna Warren; The Selected Poems of Howard Nemerov, by Howard Nemerov, edited by Daniel Anderson; The Perishing, by Sherod Santos; Blue Hour, by Carolyn ForchÃ©; & The Love Bomb, and Other Musical Pieces, by James Fenton.

Satanic mills (Verse Chronicle) , June 2003, 68
Reviews of The Unswept Room by Sharon Olds; Jelly Roll (A Blues) by Kevin Young; At The Palace Of Jove by Karl Kirchwey; Poems The Size Of Photographs by Les Murray; Springing: New and Selected Poems by Marie Ponsot; and Middle Earth by Henri Cole.

The real language of men (Verse Chronicle) , December 2002, 73
Reviews of Book of My Nights, by Li-Young Lee; Now the Green Blade Rises, by Elizabeth Spires; Source, by Mark Doty; Early Occult Memory Systems of the Lower Midwest, by B. H. Fairchild; The Nerve, by Glyn Maxwell; Moy Sand and Gravel, by Paul Muldoon.

Falls the shadow (Verse Chronicle) , June 2002, 75
Reviews of A Short History of the Shadow by Charles Wright; Poems Seven: New and Complete Poetry by Alan Dugan; The Watercourse by Cynthia Zarin; Belonging by Dick Davis; Never by Jorie Graham & The Orchards of Syon by Geoffrey Hill.

Bank voles at Trinity College, Dublin (Poems) , March 2002, 33

Odalisque (Poems) , March 2002, 35

An ordinary afternoon in New Haven (Poems) , March 2002, 36

All over the map (Verse Chronicle) , December 2001, 77
Reviews of Nativity Poems, by Joseph Brodsky; Against Love Poetry, by Eavan Boland; The Long Marriage, by Maxine Kumin; Rooms Are Never Finished, by Agha Shahid Ali; Landscape with Chainsaw, by James Lasdun & A Treatise on Poetry, by Czeslaw Milosz.

Folk Tales (Verse Chronicle) , June 2001, 68
A review of Seven Ages, by Louise Glück; The Beauty of the Husband, by Anne Carson; The Beforelife, by Franz Wright; The Darkness and the Light, by Anthony Hecht; Different Hours, by Stephen Dunn; The Tether, by Karl Phillips & Electric Light, by Seamus Heaney.

The Devil's toenail (Poems) , May 2001, 30

Author! author! (Verse Chronicle) , December 2000, 65
On Your Name Here, by John Ashbery; Talking Dirty to the Gods, by Yusef Komunyakaa; The Throne of Labdacus & Supernatural Love: Poems 1976-1992 by Gjertrud Schnackenberg; The Weather in Japan, by Michael Longley & Speech! Speech!, by Geoffrey Hill.

The way of all flesh (Verse Chronicle) , June 2000, 63

Swans (Poems) , January 2000, 33

Samphire (Poems) , January 2000, 34

Deceit (Poems) , January 2000, 35

The river (Poems) , January 2000, 36

No mercy (Verse Chronicle) , December 1999, 60

Vanity fair (Verse Chronicle) , June 1999, 60
Looking at On the Bus with Rosa Parks by Rita Dove, Midnight Salvage: Poems 1995-1998 by Adrienne Rich, The Lost Land by Eavan Boland, Vita Nova by Louise Glück, Wooroloo by Frieda Hughes, A Kiss in Space by Mary Jo Salter & Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse by Anne Carson

Berryman at Shakespeare (Books) , May 1999, 69
Berryman's Shakespeare by John Berryman

Sins & sensibility (Verse Chronicle) , December 1998, 69
Reviews of Sweet Machine by Mark Doty, Ten Commandments by J. D. McClatchy, The Bird Catcher by Marie Ponsot, A Working Girl Can't Win by Deborah Garrison, Babylon in a Jar by Andrew Hudgins, Blizzard of One by Mark Strand & Hay by Paul Muldoon

Soiled desires (Verse Chronicle) , June 1998, 61
On Birthday Letters by Ted Hughes, Wakefulness by John Ashbery, Desire by Frank Bidart, The Engrafted Word by Karl Kirchwey, Going Fast by Frederick Seidel & Green Sees Things in Waves by August Kleinzahler

The old burial ground (Poems) , May 1998, 23

Betrayals of the tongue (Verse Chronicle) , November 1997, 59
On Canaan by Geoffrey Hill, The Errancy by Jorie Graham, The Poems of J. V. Cunningham edited by Timothy Steele, Tales from Ovid by Ted Hughes & The Collected Poems of Amy Clampitt

Hardscrabble country (Verse Chronicle) , June 1997, 69
On recent books by Charles Wright, Michael Lind, Mary Oliver, Robert Bly, Les Murray & Edgar Bowers

Not so innocent eyes (Books) , March 1997, 74
Review of Exchanging Hats: Paintings by Elizabeth Bishop

Old guys (Verse Chronicle) , December 1996, 61
On recent books by Charles Simic, A. R. Ammons, Robert Hass, C. K. Williams, Joseph Brodsky & Anthony Hecht

Gravel on the tongue (Verse Chronicle) , June 1996, 57
On recent books of poems by W. S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, Virginia Hamilton Adair, Mark Doty, Louise Glück & Seamus Heaney

Martyrs to language (Verse Chronicle) , December 1995, 56
On Can You Hear Bird by John Ashbery, Dark Fields of the Republic: Poems 1991-1995 by Adrienne Rich, Red Sauce, Whiskey, and Snow by August Kleinzahler, The Art of Drowning by Billy Collins, Mother Love by Rita Dove, Passing Through: The Later Poems, New and Selected by Stanley Kunitz, and Worldling by Elizabeth Spires.

Elegy (Poems) , October 1995, 36

The other other Frost (Features) , June 1995, 21