James Dickey Critical Essay | Critical Review by Wendell Berry

Critical Review by Wendell Berry

SOURCE: Berry, Wendell. “James Dickey's New Book.” Poetry 105 (November 1964): 130-31.

In the following review, Berry describes some of the poems in Helmets as clumsy and mechanical.

Going into this book [Helmets] is like going into an experience in your own life that you know will change your mind. You either go in willing to let it happen, or you stay out. There are a lot of good poems here. “The Dusk of Horses,” “Fence Wire,” “Cherrylog Road,” “The Scarred Girl,” “The Ice Skin, Drinking from a Helmet,” and “Bums, on Waking” aren't the only poems I thought moving and good, but they are the ones I keep the firmest, clearest memory of.

Thinking just of the poems I've named, I realize to what an extent sympathy is the burden of this book, how much there is of seeing into the life of beings other than the poet. The...
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