Helen Vendler was one of our most trusted companions in reading poetry. She had an unrivaled ability to show—lucidly and invitingly—just what a poem does. Insight and wit distinguish these essays, in which Vendler elucidates the function of criticism as well as different critical methods and styles. Poets commented on range from Seamus Heaney and Czeslaw Milosz to Sylvia Plath, James Merrill, and Amy Clampitt.