LOVE LETTER FROM AN IMPOSSIBLE LAND

Despite the somewhat pompous foreword by Archibald Maceish and the not negligible sanction of the publisher in including this in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, we cannot see this small book of verse of young flight lieutenant William Meredith achieving a large sale. The volume includes, in its first part, verse written while Meredith was an undergraduate at Princeton and while still strongly under academic influences. (He is now only 25.) Some of these poems were published in college publications, in The New Republic, etc. The second half shows definite advance. It consists of poems much less derivative in literary influence, freshly and keenly drawn from his flying experiences in Alaska, ""the impossible land"" of the title. Many are simply and strongly felt and convincingly descriptive of the arctic landscape, the poet's thoughts of home, his impressions of his fellow fliers. None of the work is ever vulgar, trite or over-facile. In fact at times he seems to wrestle physically with the task of communication -- and the results are often obscure. One admires the high standard the poet has set himself, and trust that these years will bring more depth, breadth and light.