Choice Review
In this work, Carroll searches for a unity that will make of Wallace Stevens's life work a sort of ``crystal sphere'' akin to the central metaphor of The Cantos, though of course unique. As he proceeds, he involves an unbelievably ponderous mass of explicatory criticism. In one of the philosophically named chapters Carroll says, ``The space or moment between the final mercy and the final loss becomes one of the most important subjects of meditation in Stevens' visionary poetry,'' a statement that leads into an affirmation of Peter Brazeau's account of the conversion to Catholicism: he sees no need to question the veracity of the Reverend Arthur P. Hanley, who received him, nor is there any. However, his assertion that there are ``no Catholic poems'' takes a narrow view of Catholic, and the appendix, ``In the Fold,'' takes a condescending attitude towards Stevens's choice, at the end, of yes over no. Carroll's dating of each poem treated is helpful, as is the bibliography, though including only works cited. For those qualified by academic background and interest, this intelligent thematic examination of a major poet has distinct value. Graduate level.-B. Quinn, formerly, College of Saint Teresa
Library Journal Review
Linking Stevens to developments in Romantic and Victorian poetry, Carroll writes a kind of dialectical criticism showing how the poet moved from an earth-centered poetry to the ``pure poetry'' of his later years when he made a ``definitive mythic formulation of the supreme fiction.'' Basing his arguments on Stevens's letters and on the work of such critics as Frank Doggett, Joseph Riddell, and Roy Harvey Pearce, Carroll emphasizes the antitheses in Stevens's creative lifeand their ultimate resolution in such poems as ``The Owl in the Sarcophagus.'' Carroll is a supreme explicator and commentator. A significant addition to Stevens studies, required for all larger collections. Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
