Dickey, James (Vol. 2) - Dickey, James 1923–

Dickey, James 1923–

A National Book Award winner, Dickey is a poet, critic, and the author of Deliverance, a novel. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)

[Dickey's poetic] subject matter comes largely from three areas of experience: country life, with its images of plants and animals and such activities as hunting and swimming; the Second World War, in which the poet participated in the Pacific war theater and learned how men behave in extreme situations; and family relations—incidents and feelings by means of which the poet examines his ties with his parents, on the one hand, and with his children, on the other, achieving ranges of understanding across and beyond time. Dickey handles this subject matter with great resourcefulness. He pursues an incident or a set of relations doggedly until he wrings every drop of meaning from it; he enjoys working up an almost metaphysical intricacy of metaphor, carrying it through...

[The entire page is 3080 words long]

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