Terms to Be Met

Merrill compares Bradley, the 81st winner in the Yale Series of Younger Poets, to Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens and Constantin Cavafy. Deservedly high praise, not only because Bradley is a poet of serious aims but because of his coolness, his elegance, his objectivity. His language is studied, precise and unmetaphorical, a music that suggests his influences without imitating them. Like Moore, he focuses on the empirical world. Like Cavafy, his imagination encompasses vast sweeps of history. Like Stevens, he enthrones the idea of the mind. Yet he outpaces these three in his studies of advanced physics; some of his poems seem to give new dimension to time and existence. Taken together, this collection stands as a tribute to man's achievement and ingenuity as artist, builder, technocrat and thinker. This is an exceedingly fine work. (May)