The reef Book

In Arnold's poem, "Introit," she offers the image of a river roiling--a river that might be, in the end, aware of its own long history. This particular river broke through a stone barrier to make a new path to the sea. I admit I was lured into the book by this opening image. There is no explanation for why this area of the land would have to be where the river meets the ocean. Arnold was establishing, for me, a logic of natural action, whose logical basis is irrationality. As I read further into the book, I started to see this analogy relating to the sickness that broke into her life. And, at that point, I was invested in what Arnold might do. Unfortunately, by the third section, that urgency surrounding the sickness gave way to a series of unsubtle ruminations about how difficult sickness is. It could be I'm skeptical about the assumed intimacy in confessional poetry, or maybe I'm just worried by what exigence there is in confessionalism.