DIALOGUE WITH AN AUDIENCE

A large, lively collection of magazine articles, mostly from the Saturday Review, and mostly dealing with highbrow/lowbrow aspects of poetry, which John Ciardi has written over the last five years. The opinions expressed are hardly outre, but iardi's manner- effortlessly exuberant, manly and immodest-always gives the proper unch to even the most commonplace concerns. Of especial interest are his devastating ismissals of Anne Lindbergh's verse and Lord Dunsany's charge that contemporary poets are obscure or orotund. The-letters, pro and con, that SR readers whipped-up in response, are also included, and they're quite funny in a foolish sort of way. Mr. Ciardi's more serious studies survey Robert Frost, both through an interview with the ate master and an admirable analysis of Snowy Evening. Then, too, contender Ciardi sats about the New York Times and the Beats- just to show he is nobody's man but his own. However, beneath the con brio, his overall critical canons are more than occasionally a little confused. For the fans.