Selected Poems

Intense verbal music with a jazz feeling; invention against the grain of expectation; intelligence racing among materials with the variety of a busy street - these have been the qualities of Robert Pinsky's work since his first book, "Sadness and Happiness" (1975), celebrated for setting a new direction in American poetry. At that time, responding to a question about that book, Pinsky said: 'I would like to write a poetry which could contain every kind of thing, while keeping all the excitement of poetry'. That ambition was realized in a new way with each of his books, including the book-length personal monologue "An Explanation of America"; the transformed autobiography of "History of My Heart"; the bestselling translation "The Inferno of Dante"; and, most recently, the savage, inventive "Gulf Music". That variety and renewal are represented in this brilliantly chosen volume.