Friday, August 28, 2009

If a Clown

I don't think I've ever read a Stephen Dunn poem before that I really, truly liked (and many of them I really, truly dislike)—but I like this one, from the August 24, 2009, issue of The New Yorker: "If a Clown."

Ordinarily, I don't like poems that overflow with questions like this, but here, the shift to the kid at the end gives the poem the extra propulsion it needs to lift off.

3 comments:

Donald Brown said...

Well I'm glad you liked it.

Andrew Shields said...

It's funny, Don, but when I finished the poem, I actually thought, "I like that one, but Don Brown would not like it!" :-)

Donald Brown said...

well, there you have it; I've become predictable. Or...I guess I always was.