from Greatest Hits: 1962 - 2000
The Private Life of Some Poems...Bruce Bennett
from Paintbrush
- Read All Reviews
- As if Unbidden: Observations on Need and Process
...Bruce Bennett
- A Conversation with Bruce Bennett
...Robert Darling
- The Epigrammatic Bent of Bruce Bennett
...K.J. Kennedy
- Navigating the Poetic Life: On the Work of Bruce Bennett
...Christina Pugh
- Bruce Bennett: Not Writing Like Anyone Else
...Stan Sanvel Rubin - Communicative Silence: An Appreciation of the Poetry of Bruce Bennett
...David Berman
- Reading Bruce Bennett
...Dennis Leavens
- Fables of Our Time
...Dennis Leavens
- Contributors
Quotes
“Using an encyclopedic range of forms and styles, Bennett delights with his quips, epigrams, spoofs, satires, fables, tales, parodies, and epitaphs. And this is just the beginning of his variety. Those who love poetic lines, forms, patterns, parodies, and imitations find a cornucopia here: couplets, tercets, quatrains, and more; villanelles, sonnets, and limericks... One can’t help but enter into Bennett’s playful sincerity, engage with his joy, humor and honesty...
"Bruce Bennett’s collected work represents a most unusual and delightful assortment... It represents craftsmanship of a careful, dedicated, and devoted worker in the fields of literature. It demonstrates a life lived among the great poets and writers of the language, a respect for their work, an appreciation of their skill, and an eye-level look at their accomplishments... Bruce Bennett’s art is very knowing, in its moral wisdom, its literary immersion, and its genuine sympathy. For those of us who read for pleasure and instruction, Bennett’s art delivers.”
--Dennis Leavens, poetry editor of PAINTBRUSH
“The World of Bruce Bennett” (Volume XXX, 2003/4)
“Coleridge said that poetry must give pleasure, a requirement that Bruce Bennett’s work has long filled to overflowing. It is one of the most enjoyable bodies of poetry I know, which isn’t to say that Bennett— master fabulist and satirist, parodist par excellence—does not go deep. Often he compresses realms of wisdom into tight, economical passages. This generous harvest of his new and selected poems will nourish mind, heart, and funnybone. The epigrams in “Mind Sets” are in themselves worth the price of admission, and they’re only the briefest of Bennett’s wares. You’ll find balladry, villanelles, sonnets, masterly free verse, brand new tales that might have come from Grimm’s, and a good deal more. Some of Bruce Bennett’s poems look likely to stick around for as long as people keep reading American.”
--X. J. Kennedy on NAVIGATING THE DISTANCES
