The Great Ledge

James Dickey, in reviewing Peter Davison’s last book, Praying Wrong: New and Selected Poems, 1957-1984, said, ‘ Davison will not let things break him. His voice is his; he has earned it and can use it, and as a result is surely one of our better poets.’ That sense of this poet’s singularity is one of the great strengths of this new book; these deeply felt poems are uniquely his. From the almost unbearably moving ‘Equinox 1980, ‘ which opens the book, to the delightful ‘Peaches, ‘ The Great Ledge confirms the remark of Vernon Young that Davison is ‘one of the few poets of the first order writing in English today.’