Not since John Berryman's
Homage to Mistress Bradstreet
has there been a more remarkable embodiment of an historic personality in poetic form than in this book.
Through lyric and narrative sequences of great variety, Robert Peters becomes Ann Lee, the Mother Founder of the Shakers. He imaginatively relives her extraordinary life, from her childhood to her arrival with the first Shakers in American two hundred years ago. Visionary, full of craft and song,
The Gift to Be Simple
is a poem made of poems that stand on their own. Taken as a whole, they make a reading experience of unforgettable vividness.