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TDR Letter

Subject: Comment (very late) on J.M. Smith's review of Dewdney

February 22, 2005

Dear Danforth Review,

There is nothing worse than turning someone with little or no poetic sensibility on to the ruggedly new voice of Christopher Dewdney. There is so much I could say about Smith's review, which reminds me of an earnest auto mechanic attempting to engage with a physician on the etiology of teratoma, but let me sum it up quickly.

Here is Smith, wagging his grammarian finger: "The lazy non-parallelism of the second sentence dismays: "There are no land plants and little / oxygen in the atmosphere." " I am sorry Smith is so easily dismayed. Here's a line from another poet that could drive him, no doubt, stark staring bonkers: "Do not go gentle into that good night." "It's 'gently,'" I can hear Smith screaming. "Modifies 'go'!"

Not that the thought of hearing Smith's agonized yelling doesn't give me an odd, perhaps perverted, pleasure.

Sincerely,

John Baglow

 

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