Merrill, James (Vol. 8) - Merrill, James 1926–

Merrill, James 1926–

Merrill is an American poet, novelist, and playwright. Throughout his distinguished career his poetry has grown more ambitious and his explorations of the human mind more intense. His exquisite, meditative poems have won for him both the Bollengen Prize and the National Book Award. (See also CLC, Vols. 2, 3, 6, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 13-16, rev. ed.)

Auden would have liked ["Divine Comedies"]—in fact, he is mentioned in it as one of the spirits who, from the next world, act as "patrons" of the living. A spirit named Ephraim tells the narrator, J. M., and his friend, D. J., that spirits must return to earth repeatedly, as to a school, until they have worked through their ignorance. (p. 6)

Ingenious? Witty? Merrill's writing is all of that. But the reader who wants to be gripped by strong feelings or a plot will be disappointed. Merrill has staked out his claim very nicely, thank you; I have the...

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