The Sentinel

Reviews / Votes

"...A.F. Moritz's work leaves me reassured about the potential efficacy of poetry, of mind engaged with world on all fronts - politically, mythically, philosophically." - Don McKay "...praise is justified...Moritz's sensibility is unique: melancholic, intellectual, comic, erotic, pitying...Moritz is a difficult, often obscure poet, whose works can defy paraphrase. With images culled from dreams, he constructs allegories of love and oppression that communicate by strange association and mysterious overtones and vague or mysterious words...the emotional content of Moritz's work is so abundant and accessible that the reader is never lost. The Sentinel is a good place to become acquainted with Moritz's work...a masterpiece...Moritz's free verse takes on a classical quality...The Sentinel is an exploration of the possibilities of hope...[Moritz is a] rare poet..." - National Post "Al Moritz is a poet of high seriousness - rare in this quick and confessional age. And so, all the more to be valued." - P.K. Page "An ancient voice, mournful like the wind, speaks to itself yet means to be overheard in A.F. Moritz's amazing poems...We seem to hear shattered echoes from the Bible, Dante, Petrarch, or Sceve bound up in Maldoror's cruel eloquence." - John Ashbery "Moritz is at his best when he combines his poetic sensibility-his ear for rhythm, precise phrasing, nuanced shifts in tone and register, and lyrical imagery-with his knowledge of mythic and literary conventions and his cogent political and philosophical observations" - Canadian Literature "The Sentinel is filled with moments like this: graceful, adroit, surprising. There is something reassuring in art of this calibre; it reminds us how things matter. Moritz's voice is unmistakable. His readers, his admiring peers and his reviewers have long felt this, but it has become so obvious that it must finally be said: A.F. Moritz is one of the true master poets of his generation." - Globe and Mail