Dana Gioia is usually classed with the group of the New Formalists. This literary resurgence sprung up in the early 1990s when some poets considered the loss of rhyme and the over usage of free verse to robbing poetry's soul. Pity the Beautiful was published in 2012 and while some of the poems in the collection are written in perfect rhyming verse, others are written in free verse. This can be considered a trademark of Dana Gioia. His poetry is both clear and easily understood but also conjures up shrouded images that leave some questions unanswered.
The collection Pity the Beautiful is a prime example of Gioia work and has generally been met with praise from both critics and the general public alike. The collection deals with similar topics than other Gioia works, namely the profane life of everyday people and the divine, and how these intertwine. One prime example of this is found in the poem "The Angel with the Broken Wing", which is written from the perspective of the marble statue. The angel remembers how he was created and how he was injured, which gave him a special place within a museum. However, he also remembers that he has to tell God about the deeds of the world, but is stuck on the ground. This serene creature's feeling of helplessness is then echoed in a more human form in "The Apple Orchard". A young man is pondering the love between him and his friend, where no step was ever taken. The end of both poems feels similar, the protagonists are unable to follow their own desires.
While "The Apple Orchard" and the "The Angel with the Broken Wing" have very clear cut stories, other poems describe higher purposes. "The Lunatic, The Lover, and the Poet" has passion and the world's dependence on it as the topic. The narrator of the poem goes as far as to fear that the moon would eclipse if passion would cease to exist, as the existence of men is dependent on the stories they create. The titular poem "Pity the Beautiful" is one of the poems that would be considered New Formalist, as it has a perfect rhyme scheme. It is an elegantly short and pointed poem that warns the audience that beauty fades and those that live of it should be pitied.
Pity the Beautiful by Dana Gioia is a beautifully written masterpiece of modern American poetry. He manages to marry the profane with the spiritual without creating a harsh power imbalance. While God has all the strings in the hand, human freedom and especially human passion play as important a role in the collection.
