Radiant and Reasonable with Little Ins and Red

These objects, which point to works by John Ciardi, Philip Levine and John Donne, deal with transformation. In examples of Ciardi’s atmosphere of possibility, the unconscious materializes, a boy’s head shrinks, gloom turns to gratitude, yeast produces loaves, and a scapegrace becomes heroic. The bell in “Meditation XVII” prompts Donne’s audience to respect their fellow humans, and in Levine’s poem, the speaker does just that, awed into silence by the pain of his “imaginary brother.” The title of this case comes from Gertrude Stein's poem "Vegetable."