Former New York State Poet Jane Cooper brings together work from four earlier books, along with eighteen previously unpublished poems. In a voice of unusual integrity Jane Cooper traces the arc of a life, from poems written out of the shadow of World War II, to haunting personal elegies, to poems that, with no loss of intimacy, engage history with passion and subtlety. Here are poems of love, loss, friendship, concern for the lives of women, the humor and "complex shame" of a white Southern heritage, the mysteries of art. " A] beautifully assembled life s work. Jane Cooper has been engaged in...

Observing that poetry is a natural part of our pastimes and rituals, Muriel Rukeyser opposes elitist attitudes and confronts Americans' fear of feeling. Multicultural and interdisciplinary, this collection of essays and speeches makes an irrefutable case for the centrality of poetry in American life.