"To give the impression that something important is happening but that the mere reader cannot, without some kind of special, esoteric knowledge, have access to it strikes me as deeply ungenerous, even cruel. Merwin's poems have always been mysterious, generous, and clear, knowing in their unknowingness." In this personal essay first presented in American Poet, Matthew Zapruder re-visits and admires W.S. Merwin's 1995 collection The Vixen.
