Customer Reviews

Prophets & Professors: Essays on the Lives and Works of Modern Poets

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Anyone who loves poetry should read this book. Bawer is a worshipper of poetry in the best possible sense: he absolutely revels in the poems he loves. His reader is equally lucky. In Bawer's hands, poets and poetry are animated and vital.

Covering a range of modern poets from Auden to Stevens to Plath to Jarrell to Justice, he discusses their poetry and their lives. His pieces are less directly focused on the lives of the artists than, say, James Fenton's latest book, in the sense of perspective, but they are always erudite and engaging. True, I may be partial to someone who clearly takes my own view, openly confessing to disdainful thoughts on poetry as self-expression and therapy (which, I, too, have encountered far too often), but when the future of poetry is at stake, honesty is our only hope. And Bawer has honesty in spades, not even shying away from criticism of the always esteemed Helen Vendler.

Bawer's insights made me reread and reconsider poems, and gave me a greater understanding of all. He is invaluable. For anyone who is dissatisfied with the general degeneration of today's poetry and the humid (fetid?) atmosphere hanging over it all, this book is a blessing. At the very least, you'll know you're not alone and learn something (guaranteed) in the process.