Howard Nemerov Summary

The American writer Howard Nemerov (1920-1991) was recognized for his novels, short stories, criticism, nonfiction, drama, and satiric poetry, as well as for being the third poet laureate of the Unite... Read more

Howard Nemerov's literary career has been a singularly wide-ranging and productive one. A teacher by profession (currently the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of English at Wash... Read more

In the following excerpt from a review of several new books of poetry, including Nemerov's Guide to the Ruins, Eberhart comments on Nemerov's ability to be detached while at the same tim... Read more

In the following essay, Randall analyzes the ways in which Nemerov's “double vision” enables him to objectify the invisible world through the observable world. Once, writes Nem... Read more

In the following essay, Bartholomay closely examines Nemerov's complex concepts of language, imagery, and the poetic imagination. In a recent poem, Howard Nemerov describes the artist as one... Read more

In the following introductory chapter to a book-length study of Nemerov, Mills notes that his purpose will be to align Nemerov's thinking with the philosophical trends of his age. Howard Nem... Read more

In the following essay, Young outlines the ways in which Nemerov's poetry was prefigured by both Ralph Waldo Emerson's and Carl Jung's ideas of the unconscious. For it is the i... Read more

In the following excerpted review, Hudson says that the poems in The Western Approaches continue to delight the reader. Howard Nemerov1 goes on and on and on writing good poems; almost always in ia... Read more

In the following excerpted review of The Western Approaches, Thomas finds the poems somewhat world-weary and the metrical patterns repetitive. America's troubles and introspections shadow [s... Read more

In the following review of The Collected Poems, Shaw points to Nemerov's versatility as a poet and his attention to the important themes of great literature. What makes a man write a poem is... Read more

In the following review of Collected Poems and Figures of Thought, Johnson defends Nemerov against critics who have accused him of being too academic. Howard Nemerov is a poet known to most readers... Read more

In the following excerpt from a review of Figures of Thought and John Wain's Professing Poetry, Lask notes Nemerov's impatience with critics who dwell heavily on formal poetic analysis w... Read more

In the following essay, Prunty examines Nemerov's Collected Poems, finding an emphasis on the interplay of movement and stasis, as well as a sense of compassion. Having won the Pulitzer Priz... Read more

In the following essay, Rubin says that Nemerov's book of critical essays Poetry and Fiction is a valuable, non-ideological, detached approach to criticism. When Howard Nemerov's most... Read more

In the following essay, Labrie discusses Nemerov's books of poetry from New and Selected Poems to The Western Approaches, emphasizing the ways in which the poet reconciles imagination and reali... Read more

In the following review, Kinzie expresses disappointment in the general quality of Sentences while praising several of the individual poems. The last poem in Howard Nemerov's new Sentences i... Read more

In the following essay, Skinner examines the various manifestations of game-playing and word play in Nemerov's poetry. In Fear of Flying, Erica Jong has her precocious narrator-protagonist c... Read more

In the following review of A Howard Nemerov Reader, Anderson says that the volume points to Nemerov as a teacher and reiterates the poet's notion of the interplay of the mind with the universe.... Read more

In the following review of Trying Conclusions and A Howard Nemerov Reader, Myers summarizes Nemerov's poetic career as an almost-sacred calling. During a 50-year career, Howard Nemerov, who ... Read more

In the following essay, Spears speaks of Nemerov's longtime association with the Sewanee Review and praises the selections in A Howard Nemerov Reader. In opening the Sewanee Writers' ... Read more

In the following review, Pratt praises Nemerov's last volume of poetry and his mastery of his craft. Howard Nemerov personally selected the contents of his fourteenth and final volume of poe... Read more

In the following essay, Pettingell, a former student of Nemerov's and the wife of his colleague Stanley Hyman, offers both a review of Trying Conclusions and personal recollections of Nemerov. ... Read more

In the following chapter from her full-length study of the influence of objective idealist Owen Barfield on Nemerov, Potts discusses the inseparability of human consciousness from the creation of real... Read more

In the following excerpt from his book on American and British poets, Rosenthal identifies Nemerov as an independent writer not attached to a particular school of poetry. The versatile American poe... Read more

In the following excerpted review, Lask asserts that Nemerov's The Blue Swallows exhibits a despairing attitude. In Howard Nemerov's most recent volume [The Blue Swallows], the poet&#... Read more

In the following excerpt from a review of The Blue Swallows and Josephine Miles's Kinds of Affection, Carruth, a prominent literary critic, writes that Nemerov's use of irony and poetic ... Read more

In the positive review of The Western Approaches below, Randall compares Nemerov to English poet William Wordsworth. If you really want to see something, look at something else. If you want to say... Read more

In the following review of War Stories, Richman discusses existential themes in Nemerov's poetry as a whole. "They say the war is over," writes Howard Nemerov in "Redepl... Read more

In the review below, Clark examines Nemerov's incorporation of science and technology into his works. As reader, namer, knower, skeptic, Howard Nemerov has had a long and productive engageme... Read more

In the generally positive review of Mirrors and Windows below, Kizer praises the intelligence, daring, and maturity of Nemerov's poetry, but states that some of the poems in the volume are too ... Read more

Below, Carruth calls most of the poems in The Next Room of the Dream "wisecracks " and discusses what he considers Nemerov's "technicalfailures." Nemerov on poeti... Read more

In the following essay, Olsen provides a stylistic and thematic overview of Nemerov's poetry, focusing on the unifying elements in his works. The serious and the funny are one. The purpose ... Read more

In the following essay, Mills states that Nemerov's poetry of the urban landscape "concentrates on the most powerful institutions of society" and "is particularly concerned... Read more