Criticism > Poetry > Parker, Dorothy - William Rose Benét (review date 1928)

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William Rose Benét (review date 1928)

SOURCE: “New Moon Madness,” in The Saturday Review of Literature, Vol. IV, No. 46, June 9, 1928, p. 943.

[Benét reviews Sunset Gun, pointing out that Parker's writing, like her personality, is difficult to categorize.]

Is [Sunset Gun] as good as Enough Rope? Yes. And that might constitute a review, mightn't it. A eulogium, at least. Well, there were, perhaps, one or two gems of purest ray unserene in the former book that surpass anything in this; but there were also one or two sets of verses not up to the general high level. Your microscope may be better than ours when you come to examine Sunset Gun, but you will have to peer pretty intently to detect flaws.

There is a hackneyed remark made about conversationally clever people (and we are always left at the post, pawing for a rejoinder, when Mrs. Parker chooses to declare herself in a word or two,—or in...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Edmund Wilson (review date 1927)
   2. The New York Times Book Review (review date 1927)
   3. Marie Luhrs (review date 1927)
   4. William Rose Benét (review date 1928)
   5. Garreta Busey (review date 1928)
   6. Henry Seidel Canby (review date 1931)
   7. Percy Hutchison (review date 1931)
   8. Harold Rosenberg (essay date 1931)
   9. William Rose Benét (review date 1936)
   10. Louis Kronenberger (review date 1936)
   11. Monica Redlich (review date 1937)
   12. Edith H. Walton (review date 1928)
   13. Arthur F. Kinney (essay date 1998)
   14. Arthur F. Kinney (essay date 1998)
4. Copyright

1. Dorothy Parker
2. How to Analyze a Poem
3. Poetry