SOURCE: Gwynn, R. S. Review of The Selected Poems, by James Dickey. Hudson Review 52 (summer 1999): 323-28.

In the following excerpted review of Dickey's The Selected Poems, Gwynn acknowledges the energy of the poet's early verse, unfortunately underrepresented in this collection.

If James Dickey, whose selected poems¹ have recently appeared, is to have any lasting legacy, it strikes me that it will lie in the way he was able to infuse our suburban humdrum with an energy that is well nigh sacramental. Rereading early poems like “Sleeping Out on Easter,” “The Vegetable King” or “The Mountain Tent,” I know that this is just Everyguy camping out in a state park on the fringes of urban Atlanta, but a palpable shiver still comes with lines like:

I am hearing the shape of the rain Take the shape of the tent and believe it, Laying down all around where I lie...