I think you can argue that Robert Bly has had a ruinous effect on American poetry. Dana Gioia, a poet and critic whom I detest with passion, wrote a devastating article called "The Successful Career of Robert Bly," in which he lays out a convincing case from the right. I remember a throw away line from Sorrentino: he is discussing John Gardner's prose and says "Maybe John Gardner simply can't write--sort of a Robert Bly of prose." That's a critique from someone who wouldn't agree with Gioia about anything else.

As a translator, Bly is simply the worst we have. That is, the worst translator in proportion to his overall stature/reputation. (There maybe some translator worse whom I've simply never heard of.) I reviewed a book for a University Press a few years ago, in which the translations were by various hands. Bly was by far the worst of any of the translators included. (I remember James Wright being one of the best in this same group.) I won't even get into the men's movement Jungian crapola.