The book spans three centuries--opening with Angelus Silesius, Klopstock, Claudius, Goethe, and Schiller, and ending with Brecht and Boll--but it has considerable continuity. The prefaces for each of the twenty-five poets integrate the selections into a story, and often poems by different writers invite comparison. For example, almost all of the poets express an attitude toward death. Not only would many discussions of death be better if the authors had some inkling of the great variety of attitudes illustrated here, but one can also gain a better understanding of a poet's experience of...