SOURCE: Oates, Joyce Carol. “Out of Stone into Flesh: The Imagination of James Dickey.” Modern Poetry Studies, 5, no. 2 (autumn 1974): 97-144.

In the following excerpt from an essay, Oates traces Dickey's poetic development.

                    Despair and exultation Lie down together and thrash In the hot grass, no blade moving … 

—Dickey, “Turning Away”

A man cannot pay as much attention to himself as I do without living in Hell all the time.

—Dickey, Sorties

The remarkable poetic achievement of James Dickey is characterized by a restless concern with the poet's “personality” in its relationships to the world of nature and of experience. His work is rarely confessional in the sense of the term as we have come to know it, yet it is always personal—at times contemplative, at times dramatic. Because Dickey has become so controversial in recent years his incredible lyric and dramatic talent has not been adequately recognized...