This blew the top of my head off (in a Dickinsonian way)

[novapsyche]

I read some James Merrill for the first time today.

Wow. Which is to say, damn.

Comments

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Which Merrill poems specifically? When I was a creative writing grad student my mentor, the late William Matthews, insisted I skip class one particular evening and go hear Merrill read. I'm glad I did. The warm up act that evening was Merrill's protege J.D. McClatchy who also read well. OK, enough name dropping for one comment post.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

You know, I didn't write down their names. They were the Merrill selection in Contemporary American Poetry, edited by Helen Vendler, published in 1985 (9th printing in 2000).