Feeler

Description: Since Heather McHugh first began publishing her poems in 1968, poetry readers have marveled at the immensity and range of her gift. There seems to be nothing that McHugh can't do with words and do with high wit and sonic brilliance. In her chapbook Feeler, McHugh takes on the fraught subject of empathy--how much we feel, and do, for the afflicted. It also addresses the relation between thought and feeling: "Nowadays I cannot tell/ the two apart: can't feel things thoughtlessly/or think things up without emotion." As with only the very best poets, McHugh seamlessly combines thought and feeling, in poems that are entertaining and profound.

Review Quotes: "All of her lines are demanding, especially her last lines--puzzling yet provocative, they're like little switches that flip at the end, sending the reader back into the poet's maze of words."
--The New York Times Book Review

"In poems that are rich with wordplay--puns, rhymes, syntactical twists--Heather McHugh reveals the complex layers of meaning that individual words or phrases contain. The result is intellectually challenging, yet emotionally engaging verse that balances gravity with humor."
--The MacArthur Foundation