Great Regulars: By claiming that the original poem caused

the speaker such an extreme physical reaction that he needed to be strapped into a chair, [Oli] Hazzard's speaker has had fun with the idea that a poem is the same kind of event as lived experience. Yet the exaggeration serves to remind us that "The Public Square" (and poems like it) may still act powerfully on a reader's perceptions.

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: Poem of the week: Pantoum in Which Wallace Stevens Gives Me Vertigo by Oli Hazzard

~~~~~~~~~~~