It's a dream review: positive and engaging. Of course I went through it looking for parts I can use to promote the book. I chose this:
For Schmidt is indeed a poet. Readers can expect to encounter many visual and acoustic delights along the way, from internal rhymes to arresting images.
In this book I take my experiments with humor further than I have before, which is a tricky thing. Those on social media who have been so patient with my pun habit and my ridiculous rhymes will vigorously nod their heads at this:
However, not all her jokes land.
That is the truth!
And here are the final words:
As Coleridge elaborated, the ability to carry the feelings of childhood into the powers of adulthood is what distinguishes poets from mere versifiers. And it is the prime merit and proof of true poetry to represent familiar objects in such a way as to awaken in the minds of others a kindred feeling concerning them, however mundane and rusted they might be.
