Franz Wright (1953–2015)

Franz Wright's poems are a case study in existential despair and gnawing bitterness. At their best they recall the dreaded and ethereal moods of Rilke, brooding images set beside a well placed expletive or a defeated admission. Sometimes he ends a poem on an abstraction that dampens the effect of more powerful lines and moments that precede it, but these are not numerous enough to really mar the work as a whole. There are some middling pieces here, but since the book contains Wright's first four collections, that's forgivable. Most are good poems, and almost twenty of them are absolutely brilliant. If you enjoy the early work of Frank Bidart, the more cynical bits of Philip Levine, or if I may the songs of Elliott Smith, you will find something resonant in these earlier collections by Franz Wright.… (altro)