Description: Citing the work of 50 different poets--from Shakespeare and Donne to Elizabeth Bishop and Frank Bidart--the Poet Laureate explains the principles of the sounds of what is called poetry.
Brief description: Robert Pinsky is the author of several books of poetry, including Gulf Music, Jersey Rain, The Want Bone, The Figured Wheel, and At the Foundling Hospital. His bestselling translation The Inferno of Dante sets a modern standard. He was the Poet Laureate of the United States from 1997 to 2000. Among his awards and honors are the William Carlos Williams Award, the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize, the PEN/Voelcker Award, the Korean Manhae Prize, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the PEN American Center. He teaches in the graduate creative writing program at Boston University.
Review Quotes:
"A keenly idiosyncratic account of the place of poetry in our time . . . not only interesting but suspenseful to read." --James Longenbach, The Nation
"One of the marvelous things about this book is Pinsky's deep recognition that a poem is successful not because of the poet's ambition or sense of purpose but because of the effect it creates in the reader, and in many readers over time" --Graham Christian, Boston Phoenix