February 26, 2007
In 1997, former poet laureate Hass inaugurated the now famous Poet's Choice column in the Washington Post Book World
, in which he chose a poem and accompanied it with explanation or context. The goal was to make poetry more accessible to the general reader. Now all of Hass's columns are collected chronologically in a single volume. In the early columns, Hass keeps his statements short, offering mostly background for the week's poem, from standbys like Whitman and Frost, as well as favorites like Plath (about whose troubled biography he says, "I felt like I was summarizing a soap opera"), as well as poets who were unknown then and are perhaps still too little known now, like D.A. Powell (whose work "reads like a handheld camera") and Susan Wheeler. Later, longer columns range across time and space, rounding up everything from experimental writer Fanny Howe to the Serbian epic The Battle of Kossovo
. Experienced poetry readers won't find surprises in Hass's good-humored, if sometimes slightly coddling, comments, but this book doubles as an unlikely anthology of poems that are easy to enjoy, and it makes a handy guide for those new to poetry and eager to experience its breadth.
Starred review from July 1, 2007
Former poet laureate Hass fuses down-home observations with complex critical commentary in his new work, a collection of his "Poet's Choice" columns from the "Washington Post Book World". These brief, insightful reflections on everything from obscurities in Horace to familiar lines from William Butler Yeats span about two years and generally, but not always, concern newly published works of poetry and poetry translations. Some have a news hook, as in the discussion of Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself" and its connection to the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky affair. Other essays are tributes to newly deceased poets such as Janet Lewis and Denise Levertov, while still others discuss qualities seen in Asian or Eastern European poetry. What unites this disparate collection is Hass's ability to home in on the telling detail. In the case of Levertov, for example, Hass uses words she had scrawled on a blackboard"Accuracy is always the gateway to mystery"as an entrance to her unique poetic vision. Ultimately, Hass understands the intricacies involved in the fine art of poetry and describes them clearly yet compellingly. Highly recommended.Diane Scharper, Towson Univ., MD
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