of the South. For more than 20 years, hernhas been writing book reviews and literar)’rncriticism of all kinds for a variety’ ofrnnewspapers, journals, and literary magazines.rnThis new collection, focusedrnstrictly on contemporary poetr’ and consistingrnprimarily of a sequence of chroniclernreviews of more than 80 books,rnshould justly call attention to Chappell’srnachievements as critic, one whom wernmost urgently need and ought to cherish.rnTruth is, the reviewing and criticismrnof contemporary poetry is in a sorry state.rnThere are some notable exceptions —rnone thinks at once of Henry Taylor,rnRichard Tillinghast, Ted Kooser, BrendanrnGalvin, Neal Bowers, R.S. Gwynn,rnand Anthony Hecht, for example; poetsrnthemselves, of obvious integrity andrnsound judgment—but most of our reviewersrnand critics seem to be deeply andrnsincerely self-serving, eager players in arngame dedicated chiefly to the care andrnmaintenance of a particular, peculiar literary’rnestablishment, one they had muchrnto do with creating in the first place andrnobviously have a vested interest in preservingrnat all costs. One result of theirrnstance is that the establishment stars andrncelebrities, though deemed worthy ofrnintensive criticism, are not, in fact, regularlyrnsubjected to the commonplacernrigors of being widely reviewed. Theyrndon’t need to be reviewed to be knownrnand celebrated, to maintain place andrnstatus in the literary hierarchy. Most ofrnour celebrity poets are institutionalrn(corporate) creatures, working for collegesrnand universities: happy institutionalrncampers, by and large. When —asrnhere and now—image is almost everythingrnand “reality” knocks only at thernback door, what is poetry and how does itrncome into our lives? The celebrity writerrnis, on the one hand, strongly advisedrnand sorely tempted to create a kind ofrno Subscribe…rn1-800-877-5459rnbrand name (voice) and, if it works well,rnto repeat it endlessly, mindlessly. Moreover,rn”successful” poets will not, as arnrule, risk the capital of their modestrncelebrity by frequent tests and trials inrnthe public arena. Another result, dependentrnon the above, is that new poets—asrnwell as, of course, poets who are not, forrnone reason or another, members in goodrnstanding of the official establishmentarernrarely reviewed at all. Thus the establishmentrnremains largely unquestionedrnand unchallenged.rnAnd then along comes Fred Chappell,rnfully aware of the limits of all literarycriticismrnto do good or ill, as he wittilyrntells us in “Thanks But No Thanks” andrnin the brief, brilliant “Afterword” wherernhe says that “my purposes in criticismrnhave been to laud the ways I found beautifulrnand truthful and to censure, as gentlyrnas conscience allowed, the ways Irnfound faulty and unfaithful.” (Howrnmany poets have lately invoked beautyrnand truth as criteria of excellence? Howrnmany have mentioned conscience?)rnChappell does not need to assert, sincernhe demonstrates and dramatizes thesernvirtues in each of the essays, his sanityrnand decency, his hard-nosed humility, orrna level of constant integrity rare enoughrnto be breathtaking. A ^ay of Happeningrnbecomes what it is meant to be—a modelrnfor all of us.rnTo begin with, there is no separationrnof the well-known and little-knownrnpoets and their work, no segregation ofrnsheep and goats. Poets like Alfred Corn,rnA.R. Ammons, Elizabeth Spires, RaymondrnCarver, Norman Dubie, WilliamrnMatthews, Eleanor Ross Taylor, JamesrnTate, Reed Whittemore, William JayrnSmith, W.D. Snodgrass, T.R. Hummer,rnCarolyn Forche, and James Applewhiternshare space and equal, fair-minded attentionrnwith many others whose namesrnand work are not so public. Chappellrnhas long had a reputation for flinty integrity,rnextraordinary fair-mindedness.rnHe will cheerfully (and fairly) kick assrnwhen that is in order. Here he is on thernhonored and prize-winning efforts ofrnJames Tate: “Tate can write this stuff byrnthe yard, and after one reads twenty or sornyards, it all begins to sound the same, likernthe chaff of AM radio playing somewherernin the neighborhood” (“EveryrnPoet in His Humor”). Or, in the samernessay, a tough look at the art of ReedrnWhittemore: “Unfortunately, the book isrnmore attractive as a physical object thanrnas poetry. Almost all the poems here arernintended as humorous, but few of themrnare because an apparent laziness inrnWhittemore’s thought and expression invitesrnsloppy banality.” Friend or foe, nornmatter: all are equal. James Applewhite,rnfor example, is a lifelong friend of Chappell,rnand Chappell has written and herernwrites admiringly of his work. Yet he isrnunwilling to suspend the critical enterprise:rn”For all his determination to confrontrnthe new, Applewhite still subscribesrnto the Agrarian fairy tale about antebellumrnculture. It forms the ground of hisrncritical stance when he looks at thernSouth about him now” (“An Idiom ofrnUncertainty: Southern Poetry Now”).rnPraise and criticism go hand in hand.rnAnd Chappell is secure enough in hisrndemonstrable honesty to be fearless inrnhis instruction: “I would be joyous tornthink I am wrong in my surmise, but Irncan’t help gaining the impression thatrncontemporary black poetry as representedrnin the Fast Talk collection doesn’trnreally desire to communicate broadly,rnthat it takes pleasure in ethnic exclusivity.”rnWhat other matador would wave hisrncape before the multicultural bull?rnIt is more than worth the price of admissionrnto come upon some of Chappell’srndiscoveries. For example, he is notrnthe first critic, by any means, to encounterrnand honor the work of BrendanrnGalvin; but his laudatory critique of thernbook-length Saints in Their Ox-HidernBoat (“Once Upon a Time: NarrativernPoetry Returns?”) is a genuine contributionrnto a particular problem for contemporaryrnpoetry: “If Alan Shapiro is accuraternin predicting a return of narrativernpoetr)’, I would point to Saints in TheirrnOx-Hide Boat as the kind of narrative Irnwould like to see produced.”rnIn short, then, this remarkable book ofrncriticism has a number of distinct values.rnYes, it is a model of good criticism, goodrnsense, and good writing when we needrnthese most. And, like the best criticism,rnit points and leads the reader directly tornthe books and themes discussed. And itrnis an exemplary reminder— here takenrnfor granted by Chappell —that poetryrnmatters, even now; that we need to bernaware of it as best we can, in all of its successesrnand excesses.rnGeorge Garrett is the Henry HoynsrnProfessor ofEngUsh at the University ofrnVirginia. His most recent book is Daysrnof Our Lives Lie in Fragments, Newrnand Old Poems 1957-1997 (LouisianarnState University Press).rn32/CHRONICLESrnrnrn