Hayden Carruth's beautiful "To Artemis" … is a poem of formal address to the moon goddess…. The poem is dignified, sharply perceived, thoughtful, translucent, and reverent. It is in free verse with irregular sections. Carruth has a good and practiced ear, and has worked in accentual-syllabic meters as well as free verse. The following passage is exciting in motion, sound, interworkings:
flakes of light whirling away, a shower—
moonflakes, sparks
scurrying through dark trees.
The section stands out of context because it, like the section beginning "Snow lined," is in a different kind of free verse from the rest of the poem, which is soberly conversational, having no base but several times moving toward or into rising pentameter or trimeter, as in the beautiful ending:
This is a free excerpt of 121 words. There are 274 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Carruth, Hayden 1921–: Critical Essay by Paul Ramsey Access Pass.
