Abstract

Selected Verse

This article focuses on several books related to poems. "Birthdays From the Ocean," by Isabella Gardner. Isabella Gardner has some mannerisms and borrowings, to survive, but even over a sprinkle of sour notes, a poem as good as the first, and much the best, of this book, is promise enough and fact enough for anyone's reading. "The Middle Voice," by Constance Carrier. Carrier, winner of the 1954 Lamont Poetry Selection, is a passionate formalist and earns her poems both humanly and aesthetically. If there is a weakness here it is that the rhythms never override the discipline to an overtaking fine excess. The strengths of her work remain, felt and securely made. "The Symbols," by John Holmes, is a much-delayed gathering of poems from a few years back.