W. D. Snodgrass began in the shadow of Lowell's Life Studies, but with an individual lyricism that presaged a turn away from confessional verse. The turn is very evident in The Führer Bunker …, a cycle-in-progress of 20 dramatic monologues, spoken by Hitler, Goebbels, Eva Braun et al…. His audacity is more than matched by his astonishing skill in ordering his intractable material, and in combining his own inventions with the verifiable details of the last days of Hitler. Granted the immense difficulties he has taken on, Snodgrass demonstrates something of the power of a contemporary equivalent of Jacobean drama at its darkest. (p. 25)