SOURCE: Nash, Susan Smith. Review of Meadowlands, by Louise Glück. World Literature Today 71, no. 1 (winter 1997): 156–57.

In the following review, Nash compliments Glück's use of archetypal characters in Meadowlands.

What is often unappreciated or overlooked in Louise Glück's poetry is her ability to bring a mesmerizing array of emotional nuances to a single poem. For many poets, the result would be bathos, or undigestible clichés. However, Glück uses disparate and often contradictory emotions to create a subtle representation of the irresolution and ambiguity that often characterize a relationship or a marriage.

The first poem [in Meadowlands], “Penelope's Song,” explores anticipation and reconciliation, as the narrator addresses Penelope, who awaits the return of her lover with a poignant, dreamlike intensity that is shadowed by the realization that their relationship is very fragile. It is almost as though the more urgent her longing, the more likely...