ALL, The Collected Short Poems, 1923-1958

Zukofsky collects about forty years of verse, and it's a pleasure to say that he got better as he got older and clearer. He wrote many imponderable poems along the way which defy paraphrase or analysis. He often composes by electro-magnetism, i.e. dropping a series of images onto the page and throwing a switch. His poems are jammed with Machine Age details, skylines, towers, lights, ships, bridges, and with Nature, parodies, Socialist notes, and Pounds of allusions. If he has a unifying viewpoint it is that life is fragmented. The best poems are a series called ""4 Other Countries,"" ""Stratford-on-Avon"" and two imitations of Catullus, all of which ring the tocsin. One respects the courage with which he has supported his Muse all these years, but his work is likely to remain minor in impact, in spite of his sponsors, Kenneth Rexroth, Sir Herbert Read, etc.