Abstract

The author of this perceptive but sometimes rather obscure study treats a number of the major long works of modern poets as expressions of the common theme of metamorphosis. Not only do the metamorphoses of classical mythology figure prominently in the subject matter of works like The Waste Land and the Cantos, but the notion of metamorphosis has become an important means of conveying the "message" of such works: modern man's "need and desire to transcend the psychologically repressive conditions of his mechanized milieu." Sister Quinn is most clear and convincing when she is interpreting poems as literary creations, less so when she attempts to describe, in philosophical terms, what they mean or express.--L. H.