THE COMPLETE POEMS OF WILLIAM EMPSON.(Review)(Brief Article)

EDITED BY JOHN HAFFENDEN. Univ. Press. of Florida, $39.95 (504p) ISBN 0-8130-2080-8

"Slowly the poison the whole bloodstream fills./ The waste remains, the waste remains and kills." This spectacular and assiduously compiled volume restores to print, and amplifies, the considerable achievements of a good poet and a major British intellectual. William Empson (1906-1984) remains best-known for his literary criticism, especially Seven Types of Ambiguity (1930). Despite his slender poetic output, he also belongs among the most original, strangest and most powerful poets of the British 1930s. His densely worked poems combined his devotion to John Donne with a deep knowledge …