Robert Bly's poetry owes its appeal in part to vivid descriptions of the region around Madison, Minnesota, where he has spent much of his life. The chief concern of his verse, however, is not the objective portrayal of external nature but, rather, the presentation of various states of mind. Natural surroundings assume importance for him either as influences contributing to thoughts or emotions or as media of symbolic expression. Along with James Wright, James Dickey, Robert Kelley and others, Bly has argued for the writing of poetry of increased subjectivity, with emphasis upon the poet's personal vision…. He shares significant ground with the surrealist André Breton, particularly in his fondness for images generated by powerful feelings in the poet's unconscious and designed to appeal to the unconscious of the reader. Although he lacks Breton's Freudian faith in "the omnipotence of the dream," dreams and dream-images do appear in...