SOURCE: "The Prime of Amy Clampitt," in New York, Vol. 17, No. 41, October 15, 1984, pp. 44-8.

In this essay, Morrisroe credits Clampitt's poetry with the power to turn the everyday into the magical through its powerful, evocative language.

"It's all very strange," says Amy Clampitt in her small, bird-like voice. "For years, nobody wanted to read my poems. I'd submit them to magazines and get them back without a word of encouragement. Now there's all this commotion, and it's nice. But sometimes I wonder what all the fuss is about."

In just two years, the "fuss" has turned Clampitt, a former Audubon Society librarian, into one of the major voices in American poetry. Her first book, The Kingfisher, published in 1983, was immediately hailed for its technical mastery and rich, allusive language. The New York Review of Books praised Clampitt's "distinguished mind"; The New York Times Book Review recognized her "dazzling...