Bold Type's Poetry Editor Ernest Hilbert writes on Merrill: "If his poems appear to be so symmetrically ornate as to be almost grotesque in an era that was dominated by shabby, self-indulgent, and often irresponsibly political poems, they may be saved by this same fact. Merrill once posed the question 'think what one has to do to get a mass audience. I'd rather have one perfect reader. Why dynamite the pond in order to catch that single silver carp?'"

Hear Merrill read 'The Emerald' and read an essay on the James Merrill Voice of the Poet recordings.