SELECTED POEMS.
By Robert Pack '51.London, England: Chatto and WindusLtd., 1964. 48 pp. $1.95.
One has only to read the first poem in Robert Pack's Selected Poems to encounter the profundity of his mind, the long perspective of history felt against the fragility of one person imagined as "dead/A silent million years." He considers the problem of time again in "Neanderthal." He is always aware of the heavy changes in life, the difficulty of solutions.
Pack's poems are about "the old, dark, wordless mystery/Of things." They are philosophical, unified in tone, written in a slow, careful music of words. He gives his poetic words and voice to the sufferings of man, the fallings away of love, to speculations about Adam and Eve, to central realizations of family relationships. He is resolute to speak the truth which invades him with a deep necessity and probing. His resolution is to blink at nothing and to probe at the mysteries of art to see if he can make perfection with words.
These poems are somber and authorita- tive. They have not been easily won and cannot easily be disregarded. There are 26 poems in this book, which makes us hope for more of Robert Pack's careful, thought- ful, rewarding work.
Professor of English andPoet-in-Residence
