Lives of the Poets

"Schmidt's taste--powerfully formed by such precursors as David Jones, C. H. Sisson, and Donald Davie--is on view throughout this book, as he describes, in chronological order, poet after poet....The curious and belligerent tone in which Schmidt's book is written is meant, I think, to distinguish it as 'one man's views,' to avoid the neutral explanatory tone of the biographical encyclopedia, to assume the mantle of Samuel Johnson. But the tone works against its own aim, which is to win the general reader to the poets of the English language."Schmidt, Michael is the author of 'Lives of the Poets' with ISBN 9780375706042 and ISBN 0375706046.