Choice Review

Christhilf states his thesis clearly: Merwin's poetry ``eventually assimilates both the purpose and the method of mythic thought.'' In the earlier poetry, Merwin discovered that ``myth and poetry have the same objectives: both direct attention to humankind's unity with the cosmos.'' He wrote narratives that explained events ``solely by means of imagination.'' As he developed, he assumed the role of mythmaker by giving ``imaginative order to the world, to history, and to individual existence.'' This middle period (1963-73) receives the most attention. Merwin's more recent poetry shows ``ambivalence towards this role.'' We are shown how Merwin made use of Robert Graves's White Goddess; how he finds archetypal patterns in history; how he views paradise, particularly human harmony with other animals, and the fall therefrom; how he treats the themes of the human journey and death. ``Myth'' is not really defined. No evaluations are made. The poems are summarized, with ample quotations, as exemplifying various mythical themes. We find here a helpful guidebook, enabling a reader somewhat familiar with Merwin's work to read through it and find a unity, a continuity, and a significance that a casual first reading might not have yielded. Although other critics have noted the presence of myth in Merwin's poetry, this is the most thoroughgoing and up-to-date treatment of the subject. Footnotes but no index. Appropriate for upper-division undergraduates as well as for graduate students.-W.C. Buchanan, Grand Valley State College