Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Phillips, Robert (Schaeffer) - William Van O'Connor

1. Printable Version
2. Download PDF
3. Cite this Page
4. Tweet This

WILLIAM VAN O'CONNOR

I think from here on one might chance it that Robert Phillips is going to have a place among the young poets. His Inner Weather is a thoughtful book. Much of the writing is very skillful….

If one could read the poem ["Weird Sister"] through, one could see that not only are there Shakespearean echoes here, Keatsian echoes, and echoes from Coleridge because we're dealing with what Graves calls the white goddess. What struck me in going through the poem was the way in which Mr. Phillips had modified the Yeatsian idiom. I suppose, if there is one influence here that seems to me to be at least conscious, it would be from Yeats. (p. 44)

Another thing that struck me in reading Mr. Phillips was how the post World War II generation has assimilated its literary heritage. It looks at Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Yeats, but from a new position. The poets who were writing in the thirties and early forties didn't turn and look over their...

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass

1. Introduction
2. William Van O'Connor
3. Andrew Curry
4. Robert Emmet Long
5. L. S. Dembo
6. Joyce Carol Oates
7. Jerome Mazzaro
8. Alan Williamson
9. James Finn Cotter
10. G. E. Murray
11. David Sanders
12. Copyright

1. Joyce Carol Oates