Mary Oliver’s take on Emerson always surprises me. She describes him as “unbelievably sweet.” I don’t find him so. I find him upright, vigorous, rigorous and entirely admirable, but not sweet, an adjective she never gives evidence for, that I can see. She may simply be grateful to his open-mindedness, as he “opens doors and tells us to look at things for ourselves.” He takes us beyond our assumptions and invites us to explore. It’s an act of generosity, providing a steadying

Marianne Moore isn't mentioned in the Lawrence biography by John Worthen, but she published his poems in The Dial and they exchanged numerous letters. After his death, Moore wrote privately that she had a "deep, indeed reverent regard for him." Marianne Moore was often characterized as a spinster, yet she learned from frequently-censored D.H. Lawrence that there's "dignity and mystery even in carnality," writes Moore's biographer Linda Leavell. And when Moore heard that some