James Merrill's Sprezzatura.

The article discusses , Merrill's poetry as a response to the problem of reconciling his public face with his sexual identity and poetic vocation, and to his enduring commitment to closed forms in an era dominated by open forms. To show how this problem first arises in Merrill's work, I need to begin with his early novel, The Seraglio, which was begun in Italy, heavily revised afterward.