according to their lights

“Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! / And I let the fish go.” Two free associations here. The first: a friend of Elizabeth’s gave the book in which this poem appeared to her husband, himself something of a fisherman. He singled out “The Fish” for special praise, saying “I wish I knew as much about it as she does.” Four years later this man published a novella, a fishing story some of us will remember as ending quite differently from the poem. He called it The Old Man and the Sea. Now what are the facts behind such fictions? It would surprise nobody to learn that, in his long career as a sportsman, Ernest Hemingway let go far more fish than Elizabeth Bishop ever hooked. Besides, her fish wasn’t let go at all, not in real life; she told in an interview about bringing it proudly back to the dock—intact. But both she and Hemingway, whatever their private strengths and weaknesses, were concerned in their work with attitudes, “emblems of conduct”—or shall we say, some form of moral headgear—for the reader who wanders out unprotected into the elements Thus, both fish are invested with grandeur and wisdom, and the respective fishermen behave nobly, even reverently, according to their lights. That remark about her poem, Elizabeth told the interviewer, “meant more to me than any praise in the quarterlies. I knew that underneath Mr. H. and I were really a lot alike.”

—James Merrill, “A Class Day Talk,” Recitative (Northpoint Press, 1986)

poet praising poet

I love a good homage poem—a poet praising another poet—knowing how hard it is to write even a few poems that make themselves known and at the same time matter.

to have no words

There are many ways to praise a poem, including being struck speechless.

mechanical blurbs

AI is the perfect tool for composing blurbs. Drop some positive adjectives into the hopper, turn the crank a couple times, and voila: a paragraph of hyperbole and effusive praise.

plain and floral

The book’s poems were rather plain, while the book’s blurbs were beyond florid.

ignored or eclipsed

Maybe it’s not that certain poets get neglected; perhaps it’s a matter of a few poets garnering too much attention and praise.

flummery perfumery

You would think by now that the ink of blurbs would be infused with scratch-n-sniff perfumes.

didn't come out that way

After reading the blurb, I thought, he probably means what he says as praise.

critical compliment

Miss Moore has great limitations—her work is one long triumph of them; but it was sad, for so many years, to see them and nothing else insisted upon, and Miss Moore neglected for poets who ought not to be allowed to throw elegies in her grave.

Randall Jarrell on Marianne Moore, Poetry and the Age (1953).

Above quote encountered in Viscous Nonsense: Quips, Snubs and Jabs by Literary Friends and Foes (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021) edited by Kristen Hewitt.

muchly more

It’s always a bad sign when you hear a writer being praised for being ‘prolific'.

famous flaws

Flaws in a work become attributes over time: We accept and then praise the author/artist for not seeing the missteps.

get ready for praise

The occasional poem: a poet’s chance to shine among his contemporaries.

weight training

Some poets are weighed down by the heavy mantle of their early awards and praise, others gain strength and seem to shrug off the burden of their notoriety.

poems that move people

One’s occasional poems garner the sincerest praise.

poetry god

It was said of him that no one knew more about poetry than he did.

praise be

When encountering a foreign word or phrase, pause not only to puzzle out the meaning but also to praise the generosity of translators.

what it is

Given that we agree the poem is accessible, would that be the first attribute you’d mark it with?

two poets

There are two masters, Antonio Machado and Juan Ramón Jiménez. The first lives on a pure plane of serenity and poetic perfection; a human and celestial poet who has already transcended every sort of struggle, the absolute master of his prodigious inner world. Jiménez is a great poet ravaged by the terrible exaltation of his “I,” lacerated by the reality around him, stung incredibly hard by insignificant things, his ears tuned to the world, which is the true enemy of his marvelous and unique poetic soul.

—Federico Garcia Lorca, “Conversation with Bagaría,” Deep Song and Other Prose (New Directions, 1975), edited and translated by Christopher Maurer.

reading the signs

I am awfully pleased with it, awfully awfully pleased with it. I don’t believe you do me more than justice but you do me a whole lot of justice…all literature is to me me, that isn’t as bad as it sounds. Some one complained that I always stopped while I was driving to read the sign posts even when I knew the road and all I could explain was that I am fond of reading…

—Gertrude Stein, letter to Edmund Wilson in response to his piece on her in Vanity Fair, Oct. 3, 1923. Quoted by Daniel Aaron in Commonplace Book, 1934-2012 (Pressed Wafer, 2015).

allowed to float up

Blurble: 'verb' – sound made when you lift a book and turn to the back cover.