Occasions of Poetry

Thom Gunn is a wonderful poet and an incisive, elegant prose stylist. This collection of essays from the past 30 years or so is a fine overview of Gunn's chief interests and ideas. Three essays stand out. First, the essay on the poetry of Thomas Hardy is a brilliant discussion of that poet and novelist's melancholy, aching verse. I learned about several important poems that I had read before but that hadn't drawn my deep attention. Gunn's exegesis of those poems is stunningly erudite and useful. Second, Gunn's presentation on the poetry of Fulke Greville is insightful and deeply inspiring. The work of this fine 16th-century poet deserves to be better known. Yvor Winters tried his best to get Greville regarded as one of the greats, but Gunn has taken that work to the next level by lending his unquestionable credibility to an effort to get people to read the religious, philosophical poetry of Greville, who was chums with Sir Philip Sydney. Third, and best, is the deeply stirring memorial essay on Yvor Winters, the controversial critic who stormed around the American literary scene, mostly and sadly without much effect, in the first half of the last century. Gunn studied with Yvor at Stanford in the late 50s, and his depiction of the great and somewhat eccentric (perhaps "exceedingly intense" is a better phrase) poet and critic is first-rate, even if you don't a thing about Winters. There are a number of other distinguished essays in this book, and every piece offers at least some excellment commentary on a variety of writers, many of them modern favorites. Gunn has been a formalist poet most of his career, and one of the best in my judgment, though he has worked well in free verse, too. His understanding of poetry, from the viewpoint of one of the finest formalists of our time, is badly needed in this chaotic literary age. You will learn a great deal about poetry and formal poetry reading Gunn. Some people have been scared off from Gunn because he is an open (and almost nonchalantly open) homosexual who has written about the gay experience in his poetry, but don't permit the idea that Gunn is only a "gay" poet keep you from some of the best criticism written during the last 30 years. I am not gay, and I have learned a great deal about poetry and even religious poetry from Thom Gunn. We need a lot more critics like him, gay and straight. Give him a try, and don't pass up his poetry either.