SOURCE: French, James M. Review of The Zodiac, by James Dickey. Prairie Schooner 52, no. 1 (spring 1978): 113-15.

In the following review of The Zodiac, French notes that Dickey's ambitious poem is deeply flawed and improperly realized.

James Dickey's reputation as a writer has grown in the past ten years. In fact, Dickey has lately become a highly visible public figure as well. Within the past two years his poetic productivity and presence has not diminished. In that period he has published The Zodiac, written the text to In God's Image, and graced the ritual occasion of Jimmy Carter's inauguration. As a poet, James Dickey is not undeserving of the recognition he has now achieved. Yet at least one of Dickey's latest offerings, The Zodiac, does not demonstrate the strength of much of the earlier verse.

The Zodiac is by far Dickey's most ambitious effort to compose a long and...