Have a problem with understanding,
Of late, however, the almost belligerent demands of his severe and densely forbidding poetry have taken an improbable turn
Shouldn’t the word dense refer to how his literature was wordy in the past? Implying the poet’s work to be less dense of late
You missed : has taken a improbable turn
Shouldn’t that imply the current state of the person’s literature to be not dense?
His poetry is hard to understand and so people are intimidated , then all of a sudden(the improbable turn is that) he is writing a lot of poems and this is surprising because he is not used to writing so much in the past or ( austerity and one of its meaning is to be frugal ) and this is our blank
Sorry to trouble you, but can you explain this sentence maybe that helps me understand why you think people are intimidated.
No other contemporary poet’s work has such a well-earned reputation for ____ and there are few whose moral vision is so imperiously unsparing
What does there are few refer to? Other poets? If I apply math strategy the word and refers to support, and there is a contrast, which is No other … & there are few… so the blank should contain imperiously sparring ? Did I get this right?
Oh I see what you did there. No, it wouldn’t. The author is saying the poet has earned his imperiously unsparing reputation more than others.
The contrasting sentence “there are few whose…” is used to further the separation of his imperiously unsparing poetry.
I guess you could say that other poets are sparing, unlike our poet in question.
I understand that reference now, thanks a lot. But I seem to find some ambiguity in this question.
Especially aren’t these antonyms, penitential austerity and imperious unsparring?
Like its vacillating my understanding of the question. Infact, the Of late,… severe and densely…have taken improbable turn… and newfound volubility make me worry. Is my understanding of some phrases wrong?
