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Poem Spotlight

Al Filreis on William Carlos Williams

William Carlos Williams' "The crowd at the ball game," a piece of the famous Spring and All sequence, bothers not at all to observe the game being played. Its power as art derives from "the power of their faces," and it watches fans watching the game and calls the precision with which they do so beautiful.

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William Carlos Williams
 
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Alicia Ostriker on Emily Dickinson

THE SOUL SELECTS HER OWN SOCIETY: 
AN ACROSTIC

This is one of ED's smartest or wisest poems.

Her insight tickles;  it also encourages.

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Emily Dickinson
 
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Janice N. Harrington on Robert Hayden

Although its topic is difficult, Hayden's "Night, Death, Mississippi" provides a model of spareness, restraint, and writing that trusts readers.

It's night, when creatures whose vision depends on light are the most vulnerable.  It's Mississippi, where screech-owls are the ominous harbingers of death.

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Robert Hayden