"Part of Nature, Part of Us is a book that asks to be reread until
it is completely possessed--like a poem. It is significant not only
for what Helen Vendler finds in poetry, but for what she brings to
it; what she sees in what she reads and what she shows to us is a
function of who she is. In all that she writes it is manifest that
Helen Vendler reads new poems with knowledge and intelligence and
passion and wit and warmth; she comes out to greet them. Because of
that, she herself becomes a writer to whom one can return for a
sense of life.
Helen Vendler is the best poetry reviewer in America. Her virtues
are a rigorous attending to verbal structure and texture; the
ability to quote appositely and economically; a sure though not a
too-exclusive taste; above all, the ability to do the poem one
better by putting into words the relevant responses we might have
had if we'd been smarter and more feeling...In her brilliant fusion
of reviewing and criticism [she] is the legitimate successor to P.
R. Blackmur and Randall Jarrell.--William H. Pritchard "New
Republic "
"Part of Nature, Part of Us" is a book that asks to be reread until
it is completely possessed--like a poem. It is significant not only
for what Helen Vendler finds in poetry, but for what she brings to
it; what she sees in what she reads and what she shows to us is a
function of who she is. In all that she writes it is manifest that
Helen Vendler reads new poems with knowledge and intelligence and
passion and wit and warmth; she comes out to greet them. Because of
that, she herself becomes a writer to whom one can return for a
sense of life.--Richard Dyer "Boston Globe "
Helen Vendler puts herself entirely at the service of the poets she
is talking about. Although she writes too well to be invisible, she
does not compete or pontificate either...What she does is to offer
the poetry to you.--Anatole Broyard "New York Times "
Vendler exhibits in abundance the qualities our poets long for,
virtues that make the essays and reviews here collected useful to
everybody concerned with the nation's culture. High among these
virtues is the fullness of Vendler's sympathy with the poets whose
work she examines, but even prior to that gift there is her point
of view.--Irvin Ehrenpreis "New York Review of Books "
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