SOURCE: "The Structure of Galway Kinnel's The Book of Nightmares" in Field, No. 12, Spring, 1975, pp. 28-46.

In the following essay, mythology as well as Kinnell's own comments on the poem's structure aid Hilberry in analyzing The Book of Nightmares.

Writing about Galway Kinnell's long poem, I feel as I imagine I might feel if I were lecturing about Paradise Lost with John Milton in the back of the hall. Why doesn't everybody just turn around and ask him? In fact, Kinnell has said some helpful things about the structure of The Book of Nightmares (e.g. in the Ohio Review interview, Fall 1972)—and may say more. But I suppose, like other poets, he will leave a great deal unsaid. This, of course, is not coyness or obstinacy. When another person comments on a poem, we see that commentary as illuminating or not illuminating, right on certain points and...