'Not That Only’ belongs to the unlovely sub-genre of possibly muddled self-exculpation. One of my favourite examples in this vein is Donald Davie’s ‘Rejoinder to a Critic’ in which he takes issue with a reviewer who’d regretted the absence of ‘feeling’ in his poetry. Among Davie’s best pieces, the p...

'Don't like the Italian poems so much' / the email growled. The nerve it tried to touch / just slumbered on, but later he'd to ask, / 'Why write about Venetian scene or masque / when there is plenty enough misery / for you to shape a resonant simile / from in the street: cemented shore / weal...