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.