William Empson is well known for his work in literary criticism and theory, particularly Seven Types of Ambiguity and The Structure of Complex Words, but he began his career as a poet and was at one time considered one of the best young poets in England. His poems are often difficult, occasionally deeply moving, frequently funny, and always brilliantly constructed. In an age when smart, honest poetry is being appreciated once again, Empson's poems deserve our renewed attention.

Richard Eberhart, a founder of the Poet's Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the Bolligen Prize for Poetry, grew up on a 40-acre estate called Burr Oaks in Austin, Minnesota, a place which appears prominently in much of his poetry. This collection is a comprehensive collection of the work of a major American poet. For Eberhart, "Poetry is a confrontation of the whole being with reality," and, therefore, "It is a basic struggle of the soul, the mind, and the body to comprehend life; to bring order to chaos or to phenomena: and by will and insight to create communicable verbal forms for the pleasure of mankind." Eberhart is a strikingly passionate poet, although his later works do show a more controlled lyricism. He managed to be profound without sacrificing humanity, thereby achieving his self-stated poetic ideal. "Collected Poems 1930-1976" won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1977 and offers a wide selection of poems from his long career. However, please be aware that there is an "updated" versions, "Collected Poems, 1930-1986," which incorporates everything from this volume along with fifty additional poems written by Eberhart in the decade after this collection was first published. Final biographical note: After publishing his first book of poetry "A Bravery of Earth" in 1931, Eberhart worked for two years at the private tutor for the song of King Prajanhipok of Siam (now Thailand). However, no musical has been made of his experiences, at least, not to date.

The prose of the author is delightful: it was originally published in 1930 when better authors had a genteel but sophisticated style. The author's original intention was to set forth a theory of metaphor by distinguishing and analyzing, as the title says, seven forms of (linguistic) ambiguity. He draws the examples on which he exercizes his probative skill mostly from great writers in the English language. But for those schooled after, say, the 1950s it is a wonderful exhortation to read, speak and write with more subtelty than is usually encountered. A corollary of the case he makes is that ambiguity--carefully crafted ambiguity, not ambiguity of the slothful kind--can be very powerful, but it presupposes a precision in reading and writing which is a precondition for well-crafted metaphor. As such it stands for OUR generations as an exhortation to lingusitic sophistication and an implicit disproof that "liberty" goes hand in hand with slovenliness. It certainly does make better readers out of those who go through his book.

While Empson's posthumous publication, "Faustus and the Censor," first came out in the 1980's, it remains a relevant document in Christopher Marlowe criticism. The oft-disputed authenticity of Marlowe's play "Doctor Faustus," and its two versions, the A and B-texts is the main focus of Empson's book. Empson begins with the beginning - Marlowe's sources, primarily the German Faust Book. Empson discusses the possible relationship with the translator of English Faust Book, a mysterious gentleman named 'P.F.' who may have provided Marlowe with information on German and Latin texts.

Empson's thesis is that the A text is the 'original' - but that its seeming inadequacies are due to the interference of the official censor of plays in the late 1500s. Scenes missing that Empson argues were removed for reasons of state and morality are an appearance of the chorus and an episode in a Turkish harem.

The censor, Empson argues, had three major problems with Marlowe's play that required change: 1)the women Faustus consorts with must be real women - because Anglican belief did not allow that devils could consort with humans. 2)Mephistopheles must be a devil - again, Anglicanism does not allow for middle spirits. 3)Faust must be punished eternally at the end of the play; apparently, the original version when acted, left some ambiguity about this issue.

Empson's "Faust and the Censor" tends to be somewhat repetitive on supporting these points. However, the repetition is done well, so that the points he makes are continuously reinforced and consistently developed. This is an engaging piece of literary criticism - the language is familiar, even colloquial, making the book an interesting and even entertaining read - very unusual in the field of literary criticism. I don't even like Marlowe, but Empson's style and substance make this a critical work worth checking out.