SOURCE: "Out of History," in The New Republic, Vol. 208, No. 4, January 25, 1993, pp. 43-45.

In the following review of Canvas, Pinsky finds Zagajewski's poetic expression of an individual persona within a larger, historical context provides a "revealing mirror of contrasts" for American readers.

Unlikely as it may seem, the poems of the Polish poet Adam Zagajewski, wonderful in themselves, may also suggest ways to think about American culture. Zagajewski's shrewd, clear, passionate poems have a distinctive way of touching the relation of historical reality to the lives of individuals, and to art. And because he writes in the language of a country that has seen itself as small, often-defeated, but innately noble and even aristocratic—a nation deeply unified by shared religion, art, historical knowledge—the contrast alone should interest us.

So Zagajewski deserves the attention of readers accustomed to swerve away from poetry. And moreover, he is good...