AustLit

Dedication: To My Mother

'V-Letter is composed in part of transition poems. Seen from Australia or New Guinea, the city-world of the United States' east coast lost much of its power to stir Shapiro's anger.' William van O'Connor, 'Karl Shapiro: The Development of a Talent', College English 10.2 (November 1948): 74.

Author's Introduction: Since the war began, I have tried to be on my guard against becoming a "war poet"...It is not the commonplace of suffering or the platitudinous comparison with the peace, or the focus on the future that should occupy us; but the spiritual progress or retrogression of the man in war, the increase or decrease in his knowledge of beauty, government and religion. We know very well that the most resounding slogans ring dead after a few years, and that it is not for poetry to keep pace with public speeches and the strategy of events.....

'V-Letter is in certain respects a more uneven collection than its predecessors. ...But in many of the poems written in the Southwest Pacific he was dealing with a new and different culture which he could view only from the outside....He is consistent, however, in his use of concrete details to create an impression or a mood. Some of his poems of 'Place', like 'Melbourne' and 'New Guinea', are little more than travelogues in verse. Others, like 'Hill at Parramatta' and 'Sydney Bridge' convey the authentic quality of a landscape and its meaning to a stranger from America.' Dayton Kohler, 'Karl Shapiro: Poet in Uniform', College English 2.5 (February 1946): 248.