A Brad Leithauser poem, even a short poem, is usually a narrative. As poems they're strictly fashioned and formal and in that way lend themselves to narratives. And in that way, I think, they seem mechanical and clunk along with little emotion or animation. Still, this reading, I found some things to like, particularly in 2 poems I think display elegance, one a poem about sunlight, the other about Malcolm Lowry.