Customer Reviews

Halfway Down the Hall: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series)

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A friend of mine suggested I read this collection because she knows I prefer metrical verse. Unfortunately, although many of the poems in this selection are formal, they aren't all that good. The metrical poems are proficient though not deft (one wishes for the music of a Donald Justice or cleverness of an Anthony Hecht), but the poems rarely involve you; the poems seem too much like diary work, which is great for the writer but not so great for others. I am not a poetry critic, but I can say this book isn't what I thought it was going to be. I figured a selected poems would be the best poems by the poet. After reading it, I am not up to reading her life's work to see if they were, in fact, the best.

It seems that putting out a Selected Poems of some type is currently en vogue. Witness the fact there are suddenly Selected Poems out from poets who have only 2 or 3 books. Rachel Hadas has numerous books of poetry, and seeing a selection from all of them leaves me wondering how on earth she has published so much. The poems are as dry and as dull as they come. Her use of meter is so thudding it gives one a headache. She isn't artful, clever, or moving. Her poems are rarely ever surprising. A few of the early poems showed promise, but Hadas hasn't lived up to that promise. She, like many poets in her generation, is living on her name and her false reputation. This is the work of someone entrenched in the poetry "industry" and not the work of a poet. A disappointing selection of poems.

Hadas is an excellent poet with a clear, expressive style and a deeply humane outlook on life and people. A number of the poems in this collection of works from throughout her career are moving and melancholy, but also laced with warmth and humor. Hadas is a poet for lovers of poetry, but also for the reluctant ones who aren't so sure poetry is for them.

Personnaly, I find the poetry in this book to be very powerful, if not as technically appealing as some of the other contemporary poets of the day. Her meter is slightly over done, but the rhythm that is established, powers the poem along to its conclusion. Her imagery and use of such literary tricks as consonance and assonance never fails to intrigue and delight me. It is a successful, though not triumphant work which deserves reading, and becomes more compelling once it is dissected for its technical style.

I found this to be a wonderful book of poetry, particularly those poems written most recently. Hadas excells at writing about the everyday, for she turns the everyday into an occasion for seeing and feeling more keenly. And I love the music and wit of her couplets. This is a book to read aloud, to teach, and to enjoy.