SOURCE: A review of The Southern Cross, in World Literature Today, Vol. 57, No. 1, Winter, 1983, p. 111.

In the following review, Axelrod offers a generally positive assessment of The Southern Cross, but concludes that “Wright is not yet a poet of quite the first rank.”

One way to suggest the nature of Charles Wright's most recent poems [in The Southern Cross] is to indicate what they are not. They mention several names but contain no developed characters. They are devoid of the hustle and bustle of ordinary life and suggest no particularity of place. Wright's Italy and Laguna Beach remain studiously verbal; he makes no effort to bring them to life, being content to let “word” and “thing” remain apart. Except for occasional parody, the poems possess no humor. Neither do they allow a tone of excitement. Frank Bidart's poetry, studded with BLOCK LETTERS, is Wright's counterpole. Wright's subdued and...