Antartic Traveler, review by Scott Alexander Baker

Antarctic Traveler by Katha Pollitt

Antarctic Traveler is a marvelous collection of poetry by Katha Pollitt. This book features a variety of subjects and variations of poetry that simply leaves the reader in awe of the wording and structure of its poems. There is nothing in this book that is dismal. Actually every poem can certainly be interpreted as uplifting. The emotion the poems omit shows clearly that Pollitt wanted herself to show through making the reader believe she must have truly cherished every poem,
The collection is especially good in its organization. Starting with narrative poems that tell stories that give insight into the lives of each poem’s characters. Nothing short of genius is the middle of the book where she easily describes vegetables in such a magnificent way giving a picture in the reader’s mind of perfectly shaped potatoes and tomatoes. Her imagery adds to the charm and deliberateness of all the work. The ending of the book is full of tales that describe greatly, the moments that were key to the book.
The last poem, “To an Antarctic Traveler,” does nothing less
than say farewell to any reader of the book. Katha Pollitt has delivered a spectacular collection in a stimulating form that urges a reader to reread and understand more and more the imagery of each poem.
I strongly advise every lover of poetry to thoroughly read this book. A reader of this book is not to be left unhappy or disappointed in its delivery. This is the best collection of poetry I have read this year. I applaud Pollitt for her sense of imagery and diction. She has gifted us all a spectacular work to read and savor. Although the book was published in 1972 in New York, I have only now happened across it. I am happy that I have found this book and I hope that more people will find Antarctic Traveler and give themselves a chance to take in this writer’s poetry. Even if you do not generally read poetry, this book is overflowing with expression and story telling. As a reader who may enjoy short stories and novels, you may then become a reader of poetry through reading Pollitt’s book.