Contents

Foreword by Stephen Corey

Author’s Preface

Summer 1988: “Speaking Passions”

On William Stafford, Heather McHugh, Linda Pastan, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Li-Young Lee

Spring 1991: “Auditory Imagination: The Sense of Sound”

On Pamela Gross, Jane Kenyon, Li-Young Lee, Thomas Lux, Wayne Dodd

Spring 1992: “Excellent Excesses”

On Stanley Plumly, William Matthews, Pamela Stewart, Albert Goldbarth, Les Murray

Fall 1993: “Skating on Paper”

On C. K. Williams, W. S. Merwin, Judith Hall, Deborah Pope, Gerald McCarthy,

Summer 1996: “The Ladybug and the Universe”

On Stanley Kunitz, Donald Justice, Gerald Stern, Michael Harper

Summer 1997: “What Persists”

On Charles Wright, Robert Hass, Maxine Kumin, Paul Zimmer, Lisel Mueller, Leslie Norris

Winter 1998: “Against”

On Mary Karr, Billy Collins, Thylias Moss, Ted Hughes

Summer 1999: “Tensions,”

On George Szirtes, Paul Muldoon, Albert Goldbarth, Suzanne Paola, Naomi Shihab Nye

Winter 2000: “In Pursuit of Elegance”

On Les Murray, Yehuda Amichai, Derek Walcott, Jane Cooper, Robert Wrigley, James Richardson, Gregory Djanikian, Stephen Dunn

Winter 2002: “Interlude”

On Madeline DeFrees, Linda Gregerson, Li-Young Lee, Philip Schultz, Natasha Trethewey

Fall 2005: “The Fact of the Room”

On Albert Goldbarth, Quan Barry, Joseph Stroud, Ann Townsend, Kevin Prufer, Linda Bierds

Fall 2007: “Raindrops on Roses . . . ”

On Albert Goldbarth, Carl Phillips, Robert Wrigley, Rebecca McClanahan, Bruce Beasley, Paul Zimmer, John Engels

Spring 2008: “The Omnivorous Omnibus”

On Michael O’Brien, Meghan O’Rourke, Robert Hass, Philip Schultz, Stanley Plumly

Fall 2010: “Puzzles”

On Tony Hoagland, Terrance Hays, Connie Wanek, Peggy Shumaker

Summer 2011: “Walking the Line”

On James Richardson, Robert Wrigley, Elizabeth Bradfield, Robert Cording

Summer 2012: “A Question Takes”

On Marvin Bell, Jane Hirshfield, Kevin Prufer, Kevin Goodan

Winter 2012: “With a Little Help from My Friends”

On Natasha Trethewey, Kathleen Flenniken, John Hodgen, Alice Derry, Lola Haskins

Winter 2014: “Da Capo al Coda”

On Michael Mlekoday, Kerrin McCadden, David Koehn, Laura Donnelly, Kasey Jueds

Appendix: Notes on the Other Twenty-Eight Essays