SOURCE: "Voice Is Everything," in The American Book Review, Vol. 8, No. 1, November-December, 1985, pp. 19-20.

Mitchell is an American poet, educator, and critic. In the following review, he applauds the skill with which Carruth employs a variety of voices and themes in If You Call This Cry a Song.

I would like to begin this review of Hayden Carruth's [If You Call This Cry a Song] by saying that voice is unimportant to poetry, but too many crimes are committed in such a remark, not the least of which is imprecision, since it isn't clear exactly what voice is. Whatever it is, though, a great deal is said about it, mostly in its defense. Those who use the word say, further, that true poets have their own—which is to say, a single—voice, and that the poet's worth can be measured precisely by this quality, possession of a...