I rather liked Vendler's book on the sonnets, though I wouldn't take her as the last word on them.
Her taste in living poets is suspect, though. I don't think I've ever agreed with her on the poets she's championed, and I really turned her off after Dave Smith (the Bard of Fustian) and that young woman who was her colleague at Harvard (not Jorie Graham) whose name I can't recall right now.
I do think that the Graham boosting was a matter of Vendler being "glammed" by a younger poet. I've always thought that Vendler was somewhat "star-struck" by poets.
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