BOOKS
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tiona} therapy for a poet who stays legally innocuous by means of it. The
poet whom the poems of
North and South
present or imply is as at–
tractively and unassurningly good as the poet of
Observations
and
What
Are Years-but
simpler and milder, less driven into desperate straits or
dens of innocence, and taking this Century of Polycarp more for granted.
(When you read Miss Bishop's "Florida," a poem whose first sentence
begins "The state with the prettiest name," and whose last sentence
begins "The alligator, who has five distinct calls:
I
friendliness, love,
mating, war, and warning," you don't need to be told that the poetry of
Marianne Moore was, in the beginning, an appropriately selected foun–
dation for Miss Bishop's work.) Miss Bishop's poems are almost never
forced ; nobody understands better that there must be a wolf behind every
Wolf!
In her best work restraint, calm, and proportion are implicit in
every detail of metre or organization or workmanship; instead of crying,
with justice, "This is a world in which you can't get along," Miss
Bishop's poems show that it is barely but perfectly possible-has been,
that is, for her. Her work is unusually personal and honest in its wit,
perception, and sensitivity-and in its restrictions too; all her poems
have written underneath,
I have seen it.
She is morally so satisfactory,
A
literary event
cv
CYRIL CONNOLLY'S The
Condemned Playground
Here are thirty-six essays by Cyril Connolly, the brilliant
editor of
Horizon,
the English literary magazine which has
become the rallyihg point of everything that
is
young and
vital
in
present-day English thought. "This is an intel–
ligent and amusing book, doubly welcome at a time when
high thinking and low writing are the general rule," said
George Orwell in the
London
Observer.
$2.75
at your bookstore
MACMILLAN
