SOURCE: Oktenberg, Adrian. “In Solitude and Sorrow.” Women's Review of Books 13, nos. 10-11 (July 1996): 27-8.

In the following review, Oktenberg contemplates the beauty, simplicity, and expertise of Kenyon's poetry and discusses the recurring themes in Otherwise: New and Selected Poems.

Jane Kenyon's death at 47 in 1995 was a bitter loss to American poetry. In 1981, I had the pleasure of reviewing her first book. It was clear to me at the time that this was a unique voice, one with staying power.

Kenyon's voice is the body and soul of her poetry, full of gravity and grace, characterized by a kind of simplicity which is the product of long consideration, that has great depth and resonance. When I think of her I think less often of other poets than of the modern artists of spirituality—Brancusi, Barnett Newman, Rothko, Anne Truitt, Agnes Martin—who pursue an ideal of perfection with...