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Robert Vaughn's American Chronicles Series

Robert Vaughn's American Chronicles Series

MIT Press Series edited by I. Bernard Cohen and William Aspray

For additional overviews and reviews, see this page. Poetry Foundation: Scott's poetry reflects his "uniquely broad" experiences, to quote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Autobiographical elements blend with a wide knowledge of other poets' works, as well as with the author's concerns about government misdeeds, to create poems of "uninhibited yet crafted exploration," in the words of the same reviewer. Regarding Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror, Times Literary Supplement reviewer Thom Gunn wrote, "The structure of the poem is an accumulation of juxtapositions between the political and personal, the small and the large, the reflective and the anecdotal. . . . Such a structure makes for a work of great richness and complexity." Roger Mitchell, writing in American Book Review about Listening to the Candle: A Poem on Impulse, commented, "It is in their intentions and in their sense of form and language that . . . [Coming to Jakarta and Listening to the Candle] are most original." Mitchell felt that Scott's "manner of writing . . . is perhaps best described by a definition of the word 'entropy' contained in Listening to the Candle: "[T]hat state of grace // when the words are free / to write themselves." American Poetry Review critic Alan Williamson commended Scott for the way he tackles his topics in the poem. Williamson stated, "Whether the issue is the role of linguistic error in early childhood memories, New Historicist misgivings about the ethics of Spenser and Shakespeare, or the value of sexual liberationism, Scott has a charming way of moving through both sides of any argument." Williamson maintained that "no book in recent memory is more venturesome in its intellectual voyages than this one; yet one of its most attractive qualities is its dogged humanism." Mitchell concluded in his American Book Review article that Scott has "given us a remarkable picture, not so much of the world, . . . but of the mind." A Publishers Weekly contributor, after calling Scott "one of America's most trenchant political researchers," commended Minding the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000 as "most compelling when the book learning moves to the periphery and personal experience and thought come together in moments of simple, unflinching resolve.

For additional overviews and reviews, see this page. Poetry Foundation: Scott's poetry reflects his "uniquely broad" experiences, to quote a Publishers Weekly reviewer. Autobiographical elements blend with a wide knowledge of other poets' works, as well as with the author's concerns about government misdeeds, to create poems of "uninhibited yet crafted exploration," in the words of the same reviewer. Regarding Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror, Times Literary Supplement reviewer Thom Gunn wrote, "The structure of the poem is an accumulation of juxtapositions between the political and personal, the small and the large, the reflective and the anecdotal. . . . Such a structure makes for a work of great richness and complexity." Roger Mitchell, writing in American Book Review about Listening to the Candle: A Poem on Impulse, commented, "It is in their intentions and in their sense of form and language that . . . [Coming to Jakarta and Listening to the Candle] are most original." Mitchell felt that Scott's "manner of writing . . . is perhaps best described by a definition of the word 'entropy' contained in Listening to the Candle: "[T]hat state of grace // when the words are free / to write themselves." American Poetry Review critic Alan Williamson commended Scott for the way he tackles his topics in the poem. Williamson stated, "Whether the issue is the role of linguistic error in early childhood memories, New Historicist misgivings about the ethics of Spenser and Shakespeare, or the value of sexual liberationism, Scott has a charming way of moving through both sides of any argument." Williamson maintained that "no book in recent memory is more venturesome in its intellectual voyages than this one; yet one of its most attractive qualities is its dogged humanism." Mitchell concluded in his American Book Review article that Scott has "given us a remarkable picture, not so much of the world, . . . but of the mind." A Publishers Weekly contributor, after calling Scott "one of America's most trenchant political researchers," commended Minding the Darkness: A Poem for the Year 2000 as "most compelling when the book learning moves to the periphery and personal experience and thought come together in moments of simple, unflinching resolve.