28 / CHRONICLESnwaiting for those whose freshndesirenwill fell them, fell them,ncome the night.nThe use of allusion lies in its title, thenpastoral form being one of the oldestnclassical poetic traditions. Unlike thenspecific, contemporary diction inn”Bathsheba on the Third Day,” thenlanguage in “Pastoral” is consistentlyngeneralized and timeless, as is its setting.nThe “park,” the “noon sun,” then”grass,” the “mowing man,” then”young men and women”^—the imagesnand language of the poem evoke anuniversal world in which all the detailsntake on mythic and parabolic weight.nPart of that weight comes from thenpastoral tradition, where love existsnidealized, and “universal,” side by sidenwith death. The pastoral is, in othernwords, a “fallen” world.nMore impressive even than the traditionalncraft of the poem is the rawnfact of it having been imagined. Comparisonsnwith certain English poets ofnthe past come to mind, but the poemndoes not need them—it exists, in itsnperfection.nThe range between “Pastoral” andn”Bathsheba” shows something of thenvariety of the book. The poems in thisnsection deal with love carried to fulfillment,neven satiation, with either tragicnor banal conclusions. Another exceptionalnpoem in this section is “Rodin’sn’Gates of Hell,”‘ too long to quotenhere, inspired by Rodin’s sculpturenbased on Dante’s Inferno. Poems alludingnto or adducing works of visualnart are as common as they are difficultnto bring off: This one is spectacularlynsuccessful.nConfident, vigorous, various, Bathshebanon the Third Day is a book thatnoffers surprises and pleasures on everynpage. Strong as individual poems are,nthey gain by their organization into anbook which, when the last page isnturned, leaves the reader looking fornmore.nIn an era of desk-top publishing andnlaser printers, Jane Greer’s book is anrare reading event in another sense.nBathsheba on the Third Day was chosennto be published by The CummingtonnPress of Harry Duncan, who himselfnset up the book in type. Hisnprinting skill, along with the highnquality of the paper and binding, makenthe book a tactile pleasure best appre­nciated in strong, “raking” daylight. Anfine intaglio print by Priscilla Steelenserves as frontispiece, signed and numberednby the artist.nBathsheba on the Third Day is anbook not just for readers of “poetry.”nAnyone bemused or bored by whatnpasses for modern poetry should makena point to read this first book of JanenGreer’s, and hope there are more toncome.nJohn Skonnord writes from St. Paul,nMinnesota.nStargazersnby John L. RomjuenStar Wars: Suicide or Survival? bynAlun Chalfont, Boston and NewnYork: Little, Brown and Co.;n$16.95.nThe political left’s deconstruction ofn”Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” into annICBM closing on a child’s bedroomnwindow is only the most memorable ofnthe assaults on the Strategic DefensenInitiative since it was announced bynPresident Ronald Reagan on Marchn23, 1983. But the ever-shifting tacticsnalso point up the failure of an anti-SDInstrategy to emerge. As Dr. Robert Jastrow,nfounder of the Goddard Institutenfor Space Studies, stated recently, itnmay be that the debate about SDInfeasibility is over—the wrangling nownbeing about which systems will worknbest. Like the nuclear genie 40 yearsnago, the new defensive weapons thatnintercept and kill nuclear missiles atnthe speed of light are out of the bottlenand with us for the duration. Can thennuclear era ever be the same again?nLasers beamed from satellites or satellitenmirrors, for example, could burnnthrough the metal skin of targetednmissiles in “zero time.” At one-thirdnthe speed of light, particle beamsncould disrupt missile guidance systems.nOther SDI options include pelletnclouds placed in missile flight paths,nchemical lasers, electric rail guns, andnsubmarine pop-up missiles carryingnlaser weapons into space. Such weaponsnmay seem “Star War” toys to anfreshman congressman or a scribe ofna Bishops’ Pastoral. But a rapid advancenof information technologynnn—computerized systems for surveillance,nsensing, target acquisition andndiscrimination, tracking, and battlenmanagement—has moved the SDI farnalong in a short time. Exaggeratednearly claims by the Union of ConcernednScientists and the Office ofnTechnology Assessment about the impossiblenSDI quantitative requirementsnhave since been withdrawn by thosenorganizations. In fact. Dr. Jastrow estimatesnthat as few as 45-90 low-tonnagensatellites would constitute an adjustablensystem that the Soviets couldnnever saturate by multiplying theirnmissiles.nCritics most often attack SDI on thenpoint that the “leakage” even of a fewnenemy warheads nullifies the concept.nBut as Alun Chalfont’s well-arguednvolume points out, SDI was never annattempt to create a leakproof umbrella.nThe aim of SDI’s is not to “win” but tonmaximize deterrence by destroyingnenough Soviet missiles so that theirnfirst strike would not elminate thenUnited States’ major retaliatorynweapon—its land-based ICBM’s. Thisnwould effectively render impotent anynSoviet nuclear blackmail based on anfirst-strike capability.nSoviet reactions confirm that thenSDI will work. Chairman Gorbachev’snall-or-nothing focus on SDI at Reykjaviknin October 1986 should have removednany doubts about which Americannstrategic program the Soviets fearnmost and would like to kill. But fornlong years leading up to Reykjavik, thenSoviet Union has made significant advancesntowards its own SDI. It has thenworld’s only operating antiballisticnmissile complex, ringing Moscow,nwith mobile missile sites added innviolation of the 1972 ABM Treaty. InnSeptember 1986, U.S. intelligence revealedna gigantic laser weapon facilitynat Dushanbe near the Afghanistan border.nIn 1987, the probable controlncenter of a Soviet nationwide ABMndefensive system, a large phased-arraynradar facility built at Krasnoyarsk deepnin Siberia, will go on line, in violationnof the 1972 treaty. The Soviet Unionnhas an operational orbiting antisatellitensystem, to which an operative spacebasednantisatellite laser system may benadded before 1990. In strategic defense,nthe classic Soviet dual maneuvernis apparent: diplomatic and propagandanactions to slow down andn