America's Best Poetry Critic Has Died

Despite this blog's self-description up at the top of this page, I don't recall ever posting anything here about poetry over the past 21 years.

Until today.

And I'm not posting about poetry -- at least not only about poetry -- but also about poetry criticism -- and not about the work of all poetry critics, but about one in particular.

Professor Helen Vendler
(April 30, 1933 - April 23, 2024)

You could say that as a one-time, part-time poetry columnist for the Dallas Morning News from 1998-2003, I was once in the same line of work as Helen Vendler. That's about as accurate and helpful as saying a cockroach and a lion are the same because they both have legs.

Helen Vendler was a much-honored Harvard Professor of English and American Literature and Language. Her awards were many and her books even more so. I never read a Vendler piece without feeling glad that  I had. According to Wikipedia, "In 2006, The New York Times called Vendler 'the leading poetry critic in America,'" and even her critics would have been hard-pressed to disagree. She was a traditionalist, which made her controversial in some circles, and that probably appealed to my own taste in poetry. 

The death notices and appreciations are starting to pile up, though I fear most of these links are behind a firewall. Even better, check out a book by Vendler and dip in. It will be a great trip.

• The New York Times, Helen Vendler: An Appreciation (She devoted her life to showing us how and why.) Apr. 25.
• Washington Post, Helen Vendler, poetry critic both revered and feared, dies at 90 (Helen Vendler, a literary scholar and reviewer of poetry who was revered and feared in equal measures, whose scalpel-sharp critiques could...) Apr. 25.
• The Boston Globe, Helen Vendler, a towering presence in poetry criticism, has died (Struggling as a single mother in 1967 to raise a son on scant funds while teaching 10 college courses a year, Helen Vendler realized that...) Apr. 24.
• The New York Times, Helen Vendler, 'Colossus' of Poetry Criticism, Dies at 90 (Helen Vendler, one of the leading poetry critics in the United States, with a reputation-making power that derived from her fine-grained,...) Apr. 24.

Blog Post #1,000: Celebrating Emily Dickinson's 193rd Birthday

Taking a break from Health Care Law for this special blog post. But do read on for the health care tie-in. Promise.

From Day 1 -- 20 years ago -- the description for HealthLawBlog has included "poetry and other things that matter." So it's entirely fitting that my 1,000th blog post should fall on Emily Dickinson's 193rd birthday. 

The "Belle of Amherst" was born in Amherst, Massachusetts in 1830, and after 10 months of study at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, now Mount Holyoke College, lived out the rest of her 38 years back in her hometown. The home where she spent most days is now the Emily Dickinson Museum, a great place to visit and a website that is full of resources.

Emily Dickinson published 11 poems in her lifetime. Her 1,755 poems stand alongside the poetry of her contemporary, Walt Whitman, as the beginning of modern American poetry. She was obsessed with "Death," and her poems are an indispensable guide -- and challenge -- for health care providers who rely on the humanities to develop their professional chops.

This is why her poetry is included in my course, older than HealthLawBlog itself, "Law, Literature & Medicine." Ten 4th-year medical students from UT-Southwestern Medical School and ten 3rd-year Dedman Law students join together every spring semester to explore common issues in professional identity formation. Big shout-out to my collaborator UTSW prof (and law school adjunct) Reeni Abraham, M.D.! 

Poetry is a big part of the readings, and Emily is always on the list. 

Happy birthday, Em!