Bly, Robert - Howard Nelson (essay date 1984)

Howard Nelson (essay date 1984)

SOURCE: Nelson, Howard. “Tiny Poems.” In Robert Bly: An Introduction to the Poetry, pp. 113-27. New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.

[In the following essay, Nelson describes the suggestive impact and quick, emotive brilliance of Bly's “tiny poems.”]

                    While dreaming, perhaps, the hand
Of the man who broadcasts the stars like grain
Made the lost music start once more
          Like the note from a huge harp,
And the frail wave came to our lips
In the form of one or two words that had some truth.

—Antonio Machado tr. Charles Reynolds1

Since Bly is a poet who creates books that are not miscellaneous gatherings but rather strive for unity of one sort or another, I have thought it best to base the organization of this study on the individual major collections as Bly has conceived and published them. This chapter,...

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