SOURCE: “David Wagoner: The Cold Speech of the Earth,” in Unassigned Frequencies: American Poetry in Review, 1964–77, University of Illinois Press, 1977, pp. 152–81.

In the following essay, Lieberman traces Wagoner's development of a “language of sensory response,” by which means the poet can describe his encounter with and transcendence of the challenges of Nature.

I

Stretched out on the ground, I hear the news of the night Pass over and under: The faraway honks of geese flying blind as stars (And hoof—or heartbeats), The squeaks of bats, impaling moths in the air, Who leave light wings To flutter by themselves down to the grass (And under that grass The thud and thump of meeting, the weasel's whisper), Through the crackling thorns Over creekbeds up the ridge and against the moon, The coyotes howling All national anthems, cresting, picking up Where men leave off (And, beneath, the rumble of faulted...