Contents

Preface as Prelude     A. Poulin, Jr.     xv
I. Interviews
A Conversation with Marvin Bell (1961)     3
A Conversation with David Ossman (1963)     9
From a Conversation with Dan Murray (1968)     12
From a Conversation with William Heyen and Gregory Fitz Gerald (1970)     16
A Conversation with Anthony Piccone and A. Poulin, Jr. (1972)     21
From a Conversation with Michele Ricciardelli (1973)     38
A Conversation with Helen Ruggieri and David Perry (1975)     43
A Conversation with Thomas Hilgers and Michael Molloy (1979)     51

II. Essays
Dylan Thomas and the Ark of Art (1960)     63
Psychological Motifs in Melville's Pierre (1967)     74
A Note on the Inarticulate as Hero (1969)     82
The Organ-Grinder and the Cockatoo: An Introduction to E.E. Cummings (1970)     90
On Poets and Poetry Today (1971)     111
Foreword to Hart Crane's White Buildings (1972)     121
Ezra Pound: An Appreciation (1953/1972)     132
On My Early Poems (1976)     135
Going After Godot (1962/1982)     157
Bartleby and Captain Vere as Nay-Sayers to Love: Reflections on the Nature of the Melville Hero (1962/1982)     170

III. Reviews and Forewords
Birthdays from the Ocean by Isabella Gardner (1956)     177
Things of This World by Richard Wilbur (1956)     180
Green with Beasts by W.S. Merwin (1956)     182
John Gruen's Settings for Wallace Stevens (1956)     184
The Sorrows of Priapus by Edward Dahlberg (1957)     190
The Strange Islands by Thomas Merton (1957)     194
Poems of a Jew by Karl Shapiro (1958)     197
What A Kingdom It Was by Galway Kinnell (1960)     200
In Defense of Ignorance by Karl Shapiro (1961)     203
Twenty Poems of Georg Trakl Translated by James Wright and Robert Bly (1962)     209
American Poetry in 1962 (1963)     211
The Looking Glass by Isabella Gardner (1963)     215
The Hazards of Holiness by Brother Antoninus (William Everson) (1963)     225
The Brand Will Not Break by James Wright and The Lion's Tail and Eyes by James Wright, Robert Bly, and William Duffy (1963)     228
Poet's Choice Edited by Paul Engle and Joseph Langland (1963)     230
The Animal Inside by Josephine Jacobsen (1966)     233
Northfield Poems by A.R. Ammons (1967)     237
Body Rags by Galway Kinnell (1968)     244
Changing the Windows by Jerome Mazzaro (1972)     251
In the Sleep of Rivers by Joseph Stroud (1975)     253
Sailing Too Far by Milton Kessler (1977)     256
Night Conversations with None Other by Shreela Ray (1977)     259
Eggs in the Lake by Daniela Gioseffi (1979)     262

IV. Poems Discussed in Interviews 
From Cycle for Mother Cabrini (1955)     269
Pagan Saturday     271
Grandfather's Railroad     273
A Dialogue with La Mettrie     275
A Pathological Case in Pliny     279
The Death of Southwell     281
From Ghosts of the Heart (1960)     285
On the Death of the Poet's Mother Thirty-Three Years Later     285
The Picnic     290
Shore Scene     292
From Spring of the Thief (1963)     294
To a Young Poet Who Fled     294
Song on the Dread of a Chill Spring     296
Lines on His Birthday     297
From The Zigzag Walk (1969)     298
Three Moves     298
Twilight Land     298
On the House of a Friend     302
The Search     303
From The Anonymous Lover (1973)     305
Two Poems for Women     305
From The Bridge of Change (1981)     307
Five Preludes for Buffalo's Own Forest Lawn     307
Assateague     309
Grace     311