SOURCE: "The Proper Plenitude of Fact," in The Ordinary Universe: Soundings in Modern Literature, The Macmillan Company, 1968, pp. 21-50.

In the following excerpt, Donoghue discusses the defining characteristics of Tomlinson 's verse.

One might imagine a five-Act drama proceeding along these lines: (I) 'I see a mountain.' (2) 'The mountain exists, owing nothing to me.' (3) 'Now that it exists, however, it will register my feeling, receive its intimation.' (4) 'My feeling, when all is said, is more important than an inert mountain: the mountain will not mind diminishing itself to serve me.' (5) Ί shall now write my poem and it will take the place of the mountain; in this way, incidentally, I shall undo the work of Creation and be my own God. My faith in my own consciousness will move that mountain.' So Wallace Stevens wrote 'The Poem that Took the Place of a Mountain'...