Dissolution is not a new theme for Edwin An lington Robinson, for it was in “Merlin” that he told of a noble civilization falling back into violence and barbarism. It was the war that made Robinson feel so. In his latest and last book,...
By bringing together some seventy of his recent poems, Mark Van Doren, while continuing old themes, makes it clear that he has interested himself in a new theme for poetry. Psychologists might call this new preoccupation empathy, an intense...