University of Virginia Library

Uneven

And "Coming Back" is the most
uneven of Snidow's poems here.
The second section is once more
distinguished by very suggestive
details calmly observed, but the
first section suffers from some
over-eager figurative language and
the tone of the final section is
simultaneously too ambitious and
too commonplace: "On hands and
knees / I search through the ground
with my hand. / It's there."

Of the three pieces by Jeff
Dalke, "Duck Hunting" is far and
away the most accomplished, a
sustained bit of concrete
description amounting almost to a
brief narrative. Though some of the
figurative description may seem
awkward ("snow falls ... like an /
unwanted child," "the girl with the
apple-pie face"), some is strong and
fresh: "It is a funeral day. / It's like
a misplaced Sunday": "whiteness /
umbrellas out before you." Dalke's
other two poems, unfortunately,
are less successful. "To Anne" is
respectable enough, and has a kind
of integrity and joy of its own: and
yet its ultimate effect is to call to
mind a multitude of young-love
poems by other student poets. And
"After-word" seems shaky in both
tone and import, and almost
deliberately arcane.