David Yezzi is a poet, critic, and essayist whose work spans poetry, theater, and the arts. He contributed cultural criticism and reviews to The Weekly Standard between 2005 and 2016, writing on poetry, music, and theater. He has served as editor of The New Criterion and is the author of several collections of poetry.
Only a very rude mechanical could have failed to notice that this past April marked the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. It has been a year of discoveries. In a private library on the Isle of Bute, a copy of a vamped First Folio came to light, along with the meaning of the word vamped. And…
Where do poems exist, in the voice or on the page? Surely the answer is “both,” though the page might be best likened to a musical score. It greatly guides our understanding of the piece, but the full life of the thing is in the playing. W. H. Auden (following Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch) famously…
The Lover's Guide to Trapping
The Silent Treatment