Books
Hammer Is the Prayer: Selected Poems
Christian Wiman
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016, 224 pages
THE BIG DEVELOPMENT OF THE PAST TWO OR THREE YEARS, as far as American poetry is concerned, has been the rediscovery of a political accent—mainly young, partisan, realistic in mode, and affronted in tone. The spectrum of accomplishment runs from poets who merely watch Rachel Maddow to deeply serious poets of the caliber of Claudia Rankine who have taken to heart, whether acknowledged or not, what Ezra Pound wrote in a letter to Harriet Monroe in 1915: that “Poetry must be as well written as prose. Its language must be a fine language, departing in no way from speech save by a heightened intensity.”
The fact that American audiences are paying attention to protest verse comes as a relief…
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The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2017