Wallace Stevens; a Collection of Critical Essays

"One of our small handful of essential poets"-this is Northrop Frye's estimate of Wallace Stevens. Unsurpassed in virtuosity of Language and in richness and range of dramatic effects, Stevens' poems are his creative response to a world that threatens to impoverish man's imagination. Viewing Stevens' work as a whole ,and recognizing the greatness of his achievement, the critics in this volume employ approaches as diverse as their subject and illuminate as they disagree. They pay tribute to the luxuriance of his early verse; the sparse, cleanliness of his later poems; his loftiness of spirit; his human compassion; his appreciation of the sensuous details of reality."-Publisher