A PARTICULAR PLACE

by Dabney Stuart ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 2, 1969

Mr. Stuart evidently possesses a genuine poetic gift that requires little coaxing. What is offered seems effortless and uncontrived. He follows no set rules in measuring his cadence, and the very unobtrusiveness of his technique suggests mastery over mechanics. Stuart pays homage to poetic tradition (Spenser, Yeats, Howard Nemerov) as well as to the personal. A Virginian, he is fully aware of having foundations in persons and places, as his opening poem, ""His Third Decade,"" attests. Geography for Virginians can be, like family, an intimate connection, and so it is in ""Rockbridge Baths"" and ""The Charles River."" Connected, then, with a sense of time and place, Stuart can assume his identity and create symbols from his own particular consciousness at particular moments. He is private and at times mysterious though accessible. All of his poems are fine: deserving special comment are a love poem, ""Worldly Goods"" and an elegy for Randall Jarrell, ""Right of Way.

Pub Date: May 2, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION