SOURCE: "The Ghostly Member," in Poetry in Our Time, 1952. Reprint by Columbia University Press, 1956, pp. 220–53.

In the following excerpt, Deutsch discusses the themes and spirit of Bogan's poetry.

Miss Bogan's themes are the reasons of the heart that reason does not know, the eternal strangeness of time in its periods and its passage, the curious power of art. Her mood is oftenest a sombre one, relieved not by gaiety but by a sardonic wit. She is primarily a lyricist. Not for nothing does the word "song" recur repeatedly in her titles, as, among others, "Juan's Song," "Chanson Un Peu Naïve," "Song for a Slight Voice," "Song for a Lyre," "Spirit's Song." It is the spirit's song that Louise Bogan sings, even when her subject is the body. The texture of her verse is strong and fine, her images, though few, are fit, her cadences well managed. Her...