Dec 22, 2009

Chocolates | Critical Overview

“Chocolates” is one of Simpson’s more popular later poems. He has written an essay on how he composed the poem and what reactions to it have been, which initially appeared in Forty-Five Contemporary Poets: The Creative Process, edited by Alberta Turner. The essay has subsequently been reprinted in a few anthologies and in Simpson’s own Selected Prose. In the essay Simpson notes that the poem has had favorable reactions from the public. The poet writes “I recall a letter in the London Times praising ‘Chocolates’ because, the letter- writer said, it showed that...