320
I'ARTISAN REVIEW
and dioramas of the Great Fire and Waterloo
preserved, lik e a plague arm in fo rmald ehyde.
There is something beautiful and strange about a poem like this -
"Shell Pond Woods" - with its mixture of contempo rary referen ce and
hi sto rical allusion:
They hear us before we bre:tk cover
into th e square SUl111l1 er field,
and th e ho t whir o f cicad:ts :t nd ho neybees
drowns any rustling at the edge
where deer and h,lre ,1Jld fox ha ve fled
to wait concealed by leaves -
like cre:t tures in th e borders of an illul11ined
manu seript.
Martha Holl ander would kn ow what Henry Jal1les l1leant when he
remarked that he had a noti ce above hi s workplace saying "])ramatize!
Dramatize
l "
She makes the mmt of a wonderful ab ility to charge the lyric
moment with confli ct and unease. This in turn gives he r tone perhaps the
most assured note of any of these poets, although she may la ck Hiestand's
subtlety or Fulton's head-on force. 13ut she ha s a blessed, butto nholing
narrative musi c and she uses it to effect in "])ifficult Movie":
Refl ected horribl y in the grand piano,
the sky is olTered up ,IS yo ur .lccol11panist.
You pi ck o ut a l11el ody with o ne hand ,
sweati ng and waiting, w hile
th e apartl11ent stay, ulHe l11ittingly gray.
When she walks in through the half-ope n door
(an identical door u n be glil11psed behind),
she see ll1 s to bring color with her.
Now you begin the dialogue of ll1urlnured threats
and no n sequiturs, and sta re each o ther down.
The blinds throw ,atisty ing stripe, alon g a
wall,
1l10vell1ellts of sunli ght litter the ca rpet ,
and everywhere .Ire th e sweet glea l11s of
her earrings, your sh.lred winq!;ias" a gun.
Here indeed is a bo ldness with the fore ground, the background, the
lon g, settled glimpses of drama and innllendo, which ha ve o nl y recently
