SOURCE: Davis, William V. “The Poetry of Male Consciousness: The Man in the Black Coat Turns” and “The Poetry of Female Consciousness: Loving a Woman in Two Worlds.” In Robert Bly: The Poet and His Critics, pp. 53-69. Columbia, SC: Camden House, 1994.

In the following excerpt, Davis summarizes critical reaction to Bly's The Man in the Black Coat Turns and Loving a Woman in Two Worlds, works he associates with the poet's exploration of male and female consciousness, respectively.

The Poetry of Male Consciousness: the Man in the Black Coat Turns

At the beginning of the 1980s, Bly's work took a new turn. Perhaps this was inevitable after the return and renewal evidenced by his work during the 1970s. Perhaps it was inevitable for reasons related more to his life than to the literature. Whatever the causes, the shift that began with The Man in the Black Coat...