The Traveler's Calendar: New Poems

Rating:
Summary: A Great American Poet At The Height of His Powers
Review: Epstein has made quite a name for himself as a biographer, but it's still in his poetry that he truly shines. No poet of his generation has written both lyric and dramatic poetry with such classical grace, poeams at once moving and intellectually rigorous. "The Traveler's Calendar" follows the structure we have come to expect from an Epstein collection: many lyric poems of dazzling imagery and seductive music, like "Boblink" and "The Circle Dance" ("May love like the evening shadows grow/Till light and life pass away") and a tour de force of a dramatic monologue, "The Genie" (Aladdin's--an allegory about the sacrifices of the artist). The book throughout has a sad beauty as Epstein muses on the losses inevitable in middle age. But it's definitely my favorite of his books.