Trailing through the Thicket

In Intricate Thicket: Reading Late Modernist Poetries, Mark Scroggins argues persuasively that whatever innovation contemporary poets are making and however radically diverse their paths are, the attributes of their poetry were already present in modernism. Comparing Scroggins with Jameson and Perloff, I suggest that Scroggins might be the first scholar who has challenged the modern/postmodern distinction at a micro level. Intricate Thicket is a compelling book of poetry criticism in spite of some minor inadequacies.