The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar: Essays on Poets and Poetry
English
By (author): Helen Vendler
A Times Higher Education Book of the Week
One of our foremost commentators on poetry examines the work of a broad range of nineteenth- and twentieth-century English, Irish, and American poets. The Ocean, the Bird, and the Scholar gathers two decades worth of Helen Vendlers essays, book reviews, and occasional proseincluding the 2004 Jefferson Lecturein a single volume.
Its one of [Vendlers] finest books, an impressive summation of a long, distinguished career in which she revisits many of the poets she has venerated over a lifetime and written about previously. Reading it, one can feel her happiness in doing what she loves best. There is scarcely a page in the book where there isnt a fresh insight about a poet or poetry.
Charles Simic, New York Review of Books
Vendler has done perhaps more than any other living critic to shapeI might almost say createour understanding of poetry in English.
Joel Brouwer, New York Times Book Review
Poems are artifacts and [Vendler] shows us, often thrillingly, how those poems she considers the best specimens are madeA reader feels that she has thoroughly absorbed her subjects and conveys her understanding with candor, clarity, wit.
John Greening, Times Literary Supplement