Snodgrass is not … as well and favorably known as he ought to be. The reason, I think, lies in his most striking characteristic; his resolute, uncompromising, almost frightening honesty. Far from the lies for which Plato banished poets from his ideal republic, Snodgrass's verse tells the truth, however painful to himself or to others. It neither fakes, evades, exhibits ego for the sake of exhibitionism, nor grinds the axe of fad or ideology. It demonstrates what he himself has declared to be requisite for "the terribly hard work that writing is … a complete removal from any ulterior motive, an absolute dedication to the object and the experience." (p. 10)

[It] is not subject matter only that separates Snodgrass from the confessional tribe. From the beginning his verse exhibits a mastery of technique and form, a control of metrics, an ability to use conventional poetic structures for unconventional purposes that...