"Tarn as proven himself to be one of the most demanding and exacting of poetry's anthropologists. If his particular blend of density, polymathism, and accessibility have slipped him through the cracks of critical and popular attention, his investigations in <i>The Embattled Lyric</i> provide an entryway into the contexts of Tarn's poetics, and from there into his poetry."
- <I>Rain Taxi</I>,
"Tarn's poetry and criticism is remarkable for its expansiveness and willingness to absorb material from disparate sources and disciplines. This book takes the reader on a journey with both Tarn the anthropologist and Tarn the poet/thinker absorbed in the intellectual currents of the late twentieth century."
- <I>The Use of English</I>,
"<i>The Embattled Lyric</i> is written from the viewpoint of a poet/anthropologist, a series of bright essays on Celan, Paz, Huidobro, and others."
- <I>The Age</I>,