"Orpheus in the Bronx not only extols the freedom language affords us; it embodies that freedom, enacting poetry's greatest gift---the power to recognize ourselves as something other than what we are. These bracing arguments were written by a poet who sings." A highly acute writer, scholar, editor, and critic, Reginald Shepherd brings to his work the sensibilities of a classicist and a contemporary theorist,...
---James Longenbach
Orpheus in the Bronx: Essays on Identity, Politics, and the Freedom of Poetry by Reginald Shepherd is undoubtedly one of the more difficult books I have ever read. Shepherd's thinking is a few levels above mine. He's definitely more academic than I. I still enjoyed it. Having an intellectual poet's viewpoint was enlightening, since I'm always looking for a better understanding of poetry. His first chapter, "Portrait of the...
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Having never heard of Reginald Shepherd before picking up Orpheus in the Bronx, I was expecting nothing more than a collection of poems interspersed with dry musings on poetry and life. What I found myself immediately engrossed in, however, was a rich examination of the life and mind of a bold and unflinching artist. In this collection of essays, Shepherd not only shares his thoughts on other poets and poetic forms; he also...
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