W. D. Snodgrass' The Fuhrer Bunker is a rare example of ambitious, on-going verse sculpture…. There are twenty monologues. They constitute, as Snodgrass calls them, "a cycle of poems in progress." I gather that he is not exactly certain of the final count—there are already nearly a dozen completed monologues not appearing in this collection. I admire Snodgrass's courage in presenting an incomplete work for public scrutiny. Since he is a poet of stature (Heart's Needle remains one of the handful of fine books of its decade) he will be widely reviewed, and there is a danger, I should think, that the reviews may discourage or dissuade him from further writing in this mode. The Fuhrer Bunker is gargantuan: few poets have the energy or the daring to attempt work on this scale…. In a real sense, Snodgrass seems to be working at what seems possible for...