Customer Reviews

On Poetry and Craft

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I found the poet's thoughts quite helpful and not as self-indulgent as other reviewers. I think Roethke also considered himself to be an artist at teaching as well as at writing. His was not a case of "those cannot do, teach". He established a style of relating and conveying materials to students with many years of success. Most importantly, no teacher can instruct how to be a good or great writer. Every instructor in the arts faces this dilemma.
I found Roethke's thoughts to have much merit. They aren't obtrusive or intrusive just a catch as catch can if they have meaning for the reader.

I bought this book because I admire Roethke's poetry. Unfortunately the best and most interesting part of the book is the excellent foreword written by Carolyn Kizer. She manages to bring him alive - as a teacher, not just as a poet - gives a sense of the enormous excitement that the members of "that extraordinary class of '55" (including Kizer, James Wright, and Jack Gilbert) must have felt. You finish reading the introduction feeling a huge sense of anticipation ... and that's about it.

Roethke on himself is uninteresting. Ego, a couple of aphorisms, some examples (which are worth paying attention to - pity you're struggling to stay awake at this point) and a lot of the sort of waffle that he, by his own repeated insistence, would have completely rejected in poetry. Oh, and a fair bit of cattiness - see the chapter "A Tirade Turning" (what were people thinking when they included this? And why?)

The worst thing about this book is its unevenness. If it was all poorly/boringly/self-indulgently written, then you would be able to dismiss it as the work of someone who "wasn't any good at writing about writing". But then he comes out with sections like "Some notes on rhythm"; one of the most lucid explanations of rhythm effects that I have yet come across.

All in all? An disappointing book, if only because of the brief flashes of how much better it could have been. Too much self-indulgence, too much spite, too much self-congratulation. So much potential unrealised!