No one can write about poetry without a great deal of help. Over the years, I have been blessed with great teachers and colleagues, many of whom were also excellent poets, and their insights and lessons have been invaluable. In particular, I am indebted to the late R. K. Meiners, Linda W. Wagner, F. Richard Thomas, and Leonora Smith of Michigan State University for their wisdom early and late, and to my colleagues and friends Stephen Bernstein, Danny Rendleman, Scott Russell, Jan Furman, and Fred Svoboda of the University of Michigan–Flint for their excellent thoughts and considerable patience with me on matters poetic. Above all, I am indebted to a generation or so of students whose questions, ideas, and occasional quizzical expressions have kept me up to the mark year after year. A special thank-you is due to Megan Riley for her assistance in the early research for this book. As ever, none of this would be possible without Brenda, who smooths the pathway and manages the annoyances so I have the liberty to be this silly. Finally, I wish to remember my first great teacher, friend, and classmate, Keith Bellows, who got me through the frightening two-term English literature sequence (unlovingly titled “Beowulf to Virginia Woolf” by the victims) at Dartmouth when I knew about as little as it was possible to know about poetry. Brilliant writer, fascinating raconteur, ferocious editor, he left us much too early. Without him, there is no chance that I would be here to write this book.