Word for Word: Essays on the Arts of Language

These essays were not intended to be collected. They were written invariably for the sake of something that moved me and I thought might be shared or al least made known to others who might also be moved. Judgment has seemed to me for a long time now only a way of pointing back at the judge, who may choose to hide behind the mask of principle. And to the extent that judgment intrudes here you must look to my eyes to see what comes through anyhow. Many of the pieces are in a sense open letters, addressed as much to poets who are friends and whom I cherish, beyond all critique. If the essays provoke thought and feeling, if they induce the reader to approach the work referred to for the first time or anew, I have has all the thanks and satisfaction that I warrant or want.