Denise Riley’s writing career could form the basis of a study of love and impatience with lyric poetry, which at the time of writing she seems to have forsaken for a meditative prose that writes its way into, through, and past social-linguistic intensities that call for a poetic response she declines or feels unable to give. It is as though poetry teases her mercilessly for the intricate reflexiveness of her dealings.

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Denise Riley’s writing is much more reflexive than [Douglas] Oliver’s, but she also has declined to serve at the altar of lyric poetry as such. Riley is disposed to question the claims to lyric’s surpassing value implied by its exclusive pursuit.

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