697
BookReviews
is also notentirely
resemblance)
to simile'sdifferentiating
(in contrast
on thenudependsprecisely
since,as she sees,metaphor
satisfactory,
herbook
notliteral;and curiously,
as literary,
ancethatmarksidentity
forlife."
for
literature
is
the
desire
"the
desire
ends with Stevens'
evasions
Stevens'"intricate
heranalyses,
Nonetheless,
closelytracking
distancebetween
of as," oftensucceedin bridgingthe problematic
languagetheoryand criticalpraxis.
intentions,
simullanguage'scontradictory
Brogan'sStevenssustains
thatabsolute
taneouslyexpressingdesireforunityand recognizing
unity"wouldbe onlya static(and dead) ideal."Thoughnoticinghis
discusssimile,by a Bloomiantwistshe reads
"reticence"
to directly
this reluctanceas evidenceof obsession.She feelsthatin his later
poetryStevens,moreand moreattunedto language's"latenttension,"
realizesthat"therelationof languageto theworldis bestexplained
excavatespassages,especially
and expressedin simile."She carefully
wheresimileis used withcompellingpotency
fromthe laterpoetry,
withan extended
thisconsideration
supplements
and, interestingly,
evidencefor
discussionof Stevens'use of"as if"(in fact,herstatistical
showsa substantial
a growingrelianceon similemostconspicuously
of "as if").Whetheror notone
and steadyincreasein thedeployment
virtues/attributes
abouttherelative
agreeswithherbroadconclusions
her analyses(mostnotablyof "Vacancy
of simileversusmetaphor,
in the Park,""Prologuesto What Is Possible,"and "SundayMorning") revealthe pleasuresof thetexts.And beyondthe value of her
thatsimilesucceeds
to demonstrate
hereffort
presentinterpretations,
inquiry
forStevenswheremetaphorfailsopensthe wayforfurther
use of thisfiguralstepchild.
of Stevens'striking
intotheintricacies
The Citadel.
J.S.
LEONARD.
CONSUMING MYTH: The Work of James Merrill. By Stephen
Yenser.Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press. I987. 367 PP. $27.50.
THE
"It would be hard," announcesStephen Yenser in the firstchapter
of The ConsumingMyth,"to make too much of Merrill'sconcernwith
detail,forit has as much as anythingto do with the kind of writerhe
iS" (p. i6). Detail has everythingto do with the kind of book Yenser
himselfhas written,itselfan elegantproofof the justice of his claim.
Attunedto finenuances of word-playand etymology,of prosodyand
syntax,Yenserprovidesartfulclose readingsof poems fromall periods
of Merrill'scareer to date. Even the book's ten strikingphotographic
illustrationshave been carefullyselected to illuminatethe rich particulars of Merrill's work. Readers who are familiarwith Merrill's
698
American
Literature
writing,as well as those new to its elaborate densities,will glean
valuable insightsfromthe fineexplicationsthatcomprisemostof The
ConsumingMyth.
of individualtexts novelsand playsas well
Yenser'sinterpretations
as poems-are unifiedby his view of two opposing principlesactive
throughoutMerrill'swork: on the one hand, Merrillis an inveterate
dualist, discoveringdivisions,reversals,and contrariesin everything
about or within him; on the other hand, he perceivesa oneness or
unityin all things,so that his dichotomiesare at least provisionally
confounded. What is true of his metaphysicsis equally true of his
prosodyand rhetoric;"pun, paradox,alterego, chiasmus,spoonerism,
are his
and all kinds of literarydouble-stoppingand counterpointing
stock in trade" (p. 4), yet time and again these end up servinghis
sense of unicityas much as his sense of the contrarinessof things.To
use Merrill's phrase that Yenser frequentlyinvokes,we live in "One
naturedual to the end."
The book's overallargumentdoes not evolve so much as it unfolds
from what is given in the introductorypages; this correspondsto
Yenser'saccurateassessmentof Merrillas a poet whose work does not
grow so much as it develops fromitself,so that the early poems are
closely tied in theme and motifto his most recentcreations.While
Yenser consistentlyemphasizes his view of Merrillas monist/dualist,
he does so withoutobscuringthedistinctcharacterof particularpoems
or volumes. Thus, for example, WaterStreetemerges as a turning
point in Merrill'scareer,where he shiftsfromapproachingthe poem
as a perfectlyburnishedobject towardtreatingthe poem as an unfolding process honoringthe claims of the world; BravingtheElementsis
the locus of Merrill's fullestexplorationsof the hermetic,symbolist
impulse that countersthe narrativeimpulse in his work; Mirabell is
the most disorderlybook of the Sandovertrilogy,since the bats who
figureamong its main charactersspeak for the raw creativeprocess,
to which "false starts,redundancies,conflictingstories,superfluous
information,
and vagaries"(pp. 262-63) are essential.Throughout his
study,Yenser deftlyhandles the shiftingbalances, transformations,
and metamorphosesthat are both substanceand subject of Merrill's
work.
Always sympatheticin his analyses,Yenser sometimesgoes too far
in his advocacy.He claims, forinstance,that"it is all wrong to think
of [Merrill]as academic or precious"(p. 58). While it would be wrong
to see the poet exclusivelyin those terms,it is equally misguided to
deny those pronouncedtendenciesin his work. Yenser also presents
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BookReviews
Merrill as a poet of "overlooked radicalism,"as "a subversivepresence" in the literaryscene of recent decades. In so saying,Yenser
confusesoutrageousnesswith fundamentalchangeor innovation.Certainly,Merrill'suse of the Ouija board as the basis for an epic is an
example of spiriteddaring, but not of a revolutionaryforce acting
upon contemporarypoetry.Such over-zealous defensesof the poet
constituteslightflaws,however,not detractingfromthe accuracyand
interestof the volume's generalthesisor of its readings.
This is withoutquestion the best book-lengthsingle-authorstudy
on Merrill yet published. Here the sensibilitiesof the criticand his
poet subjectseem uncannilymatched.Some readersmay findYenser's
but theyare likelyto be the same readers
explicationsover-ingenious,
who dislike the self-consciousclevernessin Merrill's work. Yenser
knows Merrill'soeuvre insideout, is alertto the mostintricatestrands
bindinghis works together,and skillfullyexplainseven the most bafflinglines or structures.This is a rewardingbook on one of America's
foremostpoets.
Universityof Wisconsin.
LYNN
KELLER.
RereadingDavid Antin,JeromeRothenOF THE PRIMITIVE:
bergand Gary Snyder.By Sherman Paul. Baton Rouge: Louisiana
State Univ. Press. I986. iX, 30I PP. $27.50.
IN SEARCH
In the introductionto his provocativebook, Paul glosses the qualities that compelled his engagementwith the threepoets under study
which he definesas
here: I) thatthe poet have the abilityto "irritate,"
carrying"profoundconsequences"; and 2) that the poet be "interesting,"an accolade he accordsto one who is "at the boundarysearching
out questions and [provoking]us to do the same." In both their orand "interesting"are
dinaryuses and Paul's personalgist,"irritating"
attributesnot only of Antin, Rothenberg,and Snyderbut finallyof
Paul's achievementas well.
Characterized as a "daybook," the text amounts to a journal of
readings, scrupulouslydated, recordingPaul's interactionwith each
poet's work, individual chaptersconcluding with lengthyresponses
fromthe respectivepoets. Paul's stylepermitsitselfa similar license
of familiarcorrespondence exclamationpoints,asides, parenthetical
remarks,false starts,meanderingthoughts the demotic bias of its
offhanderudition underscoredby the formal absence of footnotes,
bibliography,index, and justifiedrightmargin. It is clear that Paul
himself is working at a boundary and provokinghis reader to do