Poetic Presence and Illusion brings together Kriegeramp39s speculation on literature and its effect on the reader. The poem Krieger argues is an illusionary presence and an everpresent illusion. It exists for the reader like a drama before an audience only within an illusionary context. But the illusion should not be taken lightly as a false substitute for reality. It is itself a real and positive force it is what we see and as such is constitutive of our reality even if our critical faculty deconstitutes that reality by viewing it as no more than an illusion. The coupling of poetic presence and poetic illusion serves to describe the relationship between poetry as metaphor and the readeramp39s sense of personal and poetic reality. Krieger examines the workings of selected Renaissance and contemporary poems with regard to this dual nature and evaluates the work of literary critics himself included who have been concerned with this doubleness. Poetic Presence and Illusion allows readers who have read Kriegeramp39s earlier work to understand the development of his critical position.