Source: Poems

The joint award of this year's Bollingen Prize in Poetry to John Ashbery and Fred Chappell came as a happy surprise to admirers of Chappell's Midquest tetralogy, a large and serious work that did not attract the attention many believe it deserved. In this new collection of lyrics, Chappell is freed of the exigencies of framework, and his powers seem to have responded with ever-greater enthusiasm. A serious end-of-the-world nightmare poem, ""The Evening of the Second Day,'' contrasts with the comic celebration of ``Recovery of Sexual Desire After a Bad Cold.'' The peculiarly rich Chappell diction, combining strictly poetic language with country dialect, is more effective than ever. Even with a masterpiece behind him, Chappell has not exhausted his gifts, as these virtuoso songs, prayers, elegies and fables prove. December