In the following essay, Herzog discusses Ostriker's role as both poet and critic.

Throughout her career, poet-critic Alicia Ostriker has resisted the pressures which privilege one creative identity over the other, poet before the critic or critic before the poet. Her life's writing— five scholarly books, eight books of poetry and a ninth book (The Nakedness of the Fathers: Biblical Visions and Revisions, 1994) which marvelously blends both prose and poetry—steadfastly refuses the prevalent cultural rift between poets and scholars. In a beautifully crafted autobiographical essay, "Five Uneasy Pieces" (1997), she writes: "I have tried to make my criticism and poetry feed each other. To write intelligent poems and passionate criticism." Reviewing her critical and poetic accomplishments, one cannot help but conclude that she has succeeded.

Her critical-scholarly career began with the publication of Vision and Verse in William Blake (1965), a meticulous analysis of Blake's prosody which still...