Articulate Flesh

Arguing that homosexual poetry is part of the mainstream of poetic writing-not a distinct and differentiated category within it-Gregory Woods provides a fastidious study of homosexual poetry in the twentieth century that emphasizes the homo erotic themes in the works of D.H. Lawrence, Hart Crane, W.H. Auden, Allen Ginsberg, and Thom Gunn. Woods's controlled and elegant study demonstrates that a critic who ignores the sexual orientation of a poet, particularly a love poet, risks overlooking the significance of the poetry itself.