THE JUDGE IS FURY

Less as a poet of promise than as a skillful writer who all but achieves his intention, is J.V. Cunningham in THE JUDGE IS FURY, a small volume of paradoxical poems and poetic epigrams. These verses are a curious blend of a fine skill in rather old-fashioned technique combined with most modern intellectual, irresolute and faithless point of view. Often the versification is limid, delicate and elegant, almost recalling Andrew Marvel, as in the really charming ""The Chase"" where the psychological insight is also keen and pointed. More often the poems disappointingly fade to nothingness, and the promise and intensity of the first verses slide down in the last to obscurity and lack of fulfillment. This book will attract a few cultivated readers but it has no large appeal. It raises but does not give promise.