SOURCE: Blackmur, R. P. “Edwin Muir: Between the Tiger's Paws.” The Kenyon Review 21, no. 3 (summer 1959): 419-36.

In the following essay, poet and literary critic R. P. Blackmur argues that Muir is an “unprofessional poet” who nevertheless produces “hard and interesting things … out of honest and endless effort and the general materials of [his language.” The essay provides an assessment of Muir's contribution to poetry, comparing him to John Keats, Emily Dickinson, and Virgil along the way.]

Young Englishmen when asked how they felt about the poetry of Edwin Muir answered by and large that they had not troubled to make an opinion about it because it had little relation to the serious venture of poetry at this time. There was an intonation of voice that, if prompted to make an opinion, would make a bad one. Young Americans when asked returned a restive blankness, rather like the puppy...