The New Criterion began publishing poetry in April 1984, about a year and a half after its first issue appeared in September 1982. That April, we published poems by Donald Hall, Brad Leithauser, and Donald Petersen. Over the following sixteen years, we have published hundreds of poems by poets young and old, celebrated and obscure. In the world of poetry, The New Criterion is probably best known as a champion of what has come to be called the New Formalism. But, while subscribing to the sentiment behind Robert Frosts comment that he would as soon write free verse as play tennis with the net down, we have in fact published poems in many styles and forms, including a fair amount of free verse. Although it can certainly be said that we are not hostile to traditional poetic forms, our first criterion has always been to publish well-made poems that display linguistic sensitivity and aesthetic intelligence.

With this in mind, we are plea ...

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