Wain is a poet of large ambitions. His early enthusiasm for the Augustan poets has left its mark on his work, not least in his hankering to make "major statements" and execute grand designs. About eight years ago in his Letters to Five Artists Wain employed Pope's favorite form in a wide-ranging exploration of the creative process. More recently he has been inclined to compete with the statements of major English writers; or rather, to place his personal imprint upon familiar materials. Samuel Johnson: A Biography, a literary tilt in which Boswell won points for thoroughness and Wain for readability, has now been followed by Feng, a "re-handling" of the story of Hamlet. As Wain sees it, the sequence of poems which make up Feng centers on the theme of power. They take us into the mind of a "sick and hallucinated [sic] person who seizes power and...