The Situation of Poetry: Contemporary Poetry and Its Traditions

"The mind at work in The Situation of Poetry is lively, fresh, and critical without being obsessed by the rigor of criticism....Pinsky's book produces for our attention a wide range of contemporary poems, some for rebuke, but most for praise. His comments are brief, vivid, distinct without claiming finality, and his taste is excellent."—Denis Donoghue, New York Times Book Review

"No one can read Pinsky's writing without being provoked to thought. He comes at poetry from the side of lived and observed life, and common speech: this approach, like its opposite which comes at poetry through intertexuality, has its place in the dialectic of criticism."—Helen Vendler, The Nation

"Pinsky's careful explications of a wide selection of poems and penetrating discussions of the psychological and philosophical implications are both stimulating and informative. This book will serve ably as a guidebook for the general student of literature."—Library Journal

"A first-rate piece of work. I can't imagine anyone capable of reading this book and not learning from it."—Hugh Kenner

"Robert Pinsky belongs to that rarest category of talents, a poet-critic."—Robert Lowell