[Merton's] last poem, The Geography of Lograire, is, in his own words, a "wide angle mosaic" on the violence, intolerance and alienation of Western man.

In scope and form The Geography of Lograire owes much to the attempt at a modern American epic. Like Crane's The Bridge, it is structured on a compass motif, ranging from South to North, East to West, through past and present, mixing history with personal experience. Like Pound's Cantos, Lograire employs fantastic erudition, and incorporates many sources through quotations and editing. The reader is asked to enter the myths of other cultures—Mayan, Sioux, Moslem, Melanesian. As in Williams' Patterson, the reader must make the connections, must see and follow the broad implied themes which sustain and unify the swirling, shifting flow of the long poem. The fragmented form, fractured syntax, and multiple allusions make Lograire rough going, but the poem greatly increases...