In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • New and Selected Poems
  • Belle Randall (bio)
Samuel Menashe , New and Selected Poems, ed. Christopher Ricks (Northumberland, U.K.: Bloodaxe, 2009), 202 pp.

In conjunction with Menashe's selection as the first-ever recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Neglected Masters Award, the Library of America in 2008 issued an expanded Samuel Menashe: New and Selected Poems, with a prefatory note by Menashe and critical commentary by Donald Davie, Stephen Spender, and Christopher Ricks—in spite of which, this new British edition is the one to get. It includes all the introductory material in the Library of America edition, plus an hour-long, sometimes amateurish but thoroughly beguiling DVD interview with the poet, filmed (by Pamela Robertson-Pearce) in his fifth-floor Greenwich Village walk-up. Moreover, the pages of the Bloodaxe edition are larger, the typeface bolder, and the photos and other elements of graphic design more pleasing, as if to make a greater claim for the self-effacing but richly deserving poems themselves. [End Page 555]

Belle Randall

Belle Randall's books of poetry include True Love, Drop Dead Beautiful, The Orpheus Sedan, and 101 Different Ways of Playing Solitaire. She has taught in several creative writing programs, including Stanford University's.

...

pdf

Share