  |
|
 |
Deeply Dug In BY R. L. Barth University of New Mexico Press, $16.95 What a surprising little book. Before R. L. Barth became known as a translator of Martial and editor of Yvor Winters, he was a Marine patrol leader in the First Reconnaissance Battalion in Vietnam. His experience was chaotic, brutal, and senseless; his poems are short, formal, and rational. The fusion of these elements makes for some very memorable poems, which can range from comic futility to bitter invective, or from editorial summary to personal tragedy, within a couple of lines. Barth's cuts are so quick and precise that the effect of his best poems can seem hauntingly out of proportion to the means by which they're made: "For thirteen months, death was familiar. / We knew its methods and the odds. Thus, war. / And yet, I never once saw dying eyes / That were not stunned or shattered by surprise." Buy this book Amazon Barnes and Noble Book Sense |
| |
|
SEARCH |