The Rise and Fall of Poetry

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If you're looking for an informed, scholarly discussion of poetry, don't buy this book. Jim Nelson is literally an amateur. He loves poetry and he shares his opinions, oblivious of their validity. Jim is what you might call an eclectic writer, or more accurately, one unable to focus his attention. He has written two novels followed by a book on insects and now here comes a book on poetry. No telling what his next masterpiece might be. (He insisted on us using the adjective "masterpiece." Since he paid to have this book printed, who are we to argue?) Jim has the temerity to suggest that the great Walt Whitman is not a poet. Ditto, Carl Sandburg, William Carlos Williams and the majority of contemporary poets. At the same time, he admits to greatly admiring these and other "non-poets." As an excuse for "having his cake and eating it too," he takes refuge in Emerson's reassuring safety net: "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." There's a "freebie" in this book: a second book! Jim shamelessly slipped in quite a few of his own poems at the back, just when you thought the book was finished. If you'd rather not read poems about cockroaches or a python, at least you might enjoy a few pretty pictures.