ALTHOUGH THE NEW FORMALIST movement is much discussed these days, the poetry of one of the finest American formalist poets tends to be significantly overlooked. Although Thomas Carper has had two books published by Johns Hopkins University Press since 1991, the 67-year-old poet's work has been reviewed in only one national American publication (a page-and-a-half review by R. S. Gwynn in the Hudson Review). Ironically, the most serious critical analysis of Carper's work has been published in Germany. A recent issue of Anglistik featured a 14-page overview of American New Formalism by Franz Link, one of Germany's leading Americanists; the article's first half discussed the writers usually associated with that movement, and the article's second half was devoted entirely to Carper's poetry. His poetry resembles Robert Frost's in embodying clear thought in clear statement, ranging in a spectrum from homey exposition to elegant restraint. Though Carper's poetry encompasses a varied range of focus from the amusing to the ironic to the poignant to the cosmic, readers in search of the stylistically pyrotechnic or avant-garde should be warned that Carper's poetry consistently demonstrates an affinity for Apollonian moderation in tone and traditionalism in rhyme and meter.
