SOURCE: Jansen, Reamy. Review of Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry, by Louise Glück. Literary Review 39, no. 3 (spring 1996): 441–43

In the following positive review, Jansen praises Proofs and Theories, addressing Glück's growth as a poet.

Louise Glück presents herself as a reader “speaking to those I have heard” in Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry. Often operating declaratively—“In Williams, loneliness is a song”—these sixteen essays are suited to their eccentric, scientific-sounding title, rebelliously putting proofs first and tying them to theory through the knot of her ampersand. As with her poetry (with the insistent, observing “I,” say, of “Mock Orange”), there is a heightened spokenness to her prose, and we are lucky to overhear her declarations.

Glück's project is two-fold. She offers an evaluative vocabulary for the reading of poetry, along with an exaltation of poets—George Oppen, John Berryman, T. S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath...