A. R. Ammons (1926–2001), author of many books of poetry, won a Bollingen Prize; two National Book Awards; a National Book Critics Circle Award; a Library of Congress Prize for Poetry; a Wallace Stevens Award; and a Robert Frost Medal. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and taught at Cornell University.

"Epigram, haiku, koan, imagist snapshot, proverb, aphorism, motto: Ammons's compressed, honed, precise lyrics now suggest one, now another of these genres. The mastery here is complete and all the more remarkable in light of Ammons's achievements in really long, sometimes book-length, poems. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Ammons has shown repeatedly and successfully that his work aims to embody the complementary principles of expansion and contraction. This pithy, witty book testifies to the sublime possibilities of the latter." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

A. R. Ammons (1926–2001), author of many books of poetry, won a Bollingen Prize; two National Book Awards; a National Book Critics Circle Award; a Library of Congress Prize for Poetry; a Wallace Stevens Award; and a Robert Frost Medal. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and taught at Cornell University.

"Epigram, haiku, koan, imagist snapshot, proverb, aphorism, motto: Ammons's compressed, honed, precise lyrics now suggest one, now another of these genres. The mastery here is complete and all the more remarkable in light of Ammons's achievements in really long, sometimes book-length, poems. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Ammons has shown repeatedly and successfully that his work aims to embody the complementary principles of expansion and contraction. This pithy, witty book testifies to the sublime possibilities of the latter." -- Virginia Quarterly Review

A. R. Ammons (1926–2001), author of many books of poetry, won a Bollingen Prize; two National Book Awards; a National Book Critics Circle Award; a Library of Congress Prize for Poetry; a Wallace Stevens Award; and a Robert Frost Medal. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and taught at Cornell University.

"Epigram, haiku, koan, imagist snapshot, proverb, aphorism, motto: Ammons's compressed, honed, precise lyrics now suggest one, now another of these genres. The mastery here is complete and all the more remarkable in light of Ammons's achievements in really long, sometimes book-length, poems. Throughout his long and distinguished career, Ammons has shown repeatedly and successfully that his work aims to embody the complementary principles of expansion and contraction. This pithy, witty book testifies to the sublime possibilities of the latter." -- Virginia Quarterly Review