In Beauty Bright

“The work of an American master.”—World Literature Today

The lyric poems of In Beauty Bright, although marked by the same passion and swiftness as Gerald Stern’s previous work, move into an area of knowledge—even wisdom—that reflects a long life of writing, teaching, and activism. They are poems of grief and anger, but the music is delicate and moving.

from "In Beauty Bright":

In beauty-bright and such it was like Blake’s

lily and though an angel he looked absurd

dragging a lily out of a beauty-...