Station | Literary Criticism & Book Review

Station Critical Overview

Although "Station" has not attracted specific comment from reviewers, the poem exhibits many of the qualities that typify Grennan's work and have won praise from critics. As Ben Howard writes in a review of As If It Matters for Poetry: "Grennan examines the tensions and banalities of middle-class life, the dynamics of marriage and parenthood, the trauma of divorce, the pain of separation from a son and daughter." Howard notes the influence on Grennan's work of Seamus Heaney and concludes that "his poems reflect a sensibility tempered by experience but ready for the next uncommon moment."

In an appreciative review of As If It Matters for Hudson Review, James Finn Cotter observes that Grennan "seeks for order in the ordinary world," and finds "Grennan's poems at their best possess . . . [a] sense of permanence and serious purpose. Here is poetry that will last, that will be read...
(read more)